
*. / 



I 



Shelf BX4r7O0 






7* 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



m 



m 




jpBI 

JTV ^^ a/N vT^*™*^ v v ^ 








.JB'I-bS 



Saint Gertrude, Spouse of Jesus, pray for us. 




Thou wilt always find Me, if thou seek Me in the Sacr 
of the Altar, or in the soul and heart of My 
Beloved Spouse, Gertrude. 



Saint Gertrude. 






THE 



HEART OF ST. GERTRUDE; 



OR, 



Heart According to That of Jesus, 



FROM THE FRENCH OF 



Le Pere L. J. M. Cros, S. J. 



By P. P. S. 




BALTIMORE: 

JOHN MURPHY & CO. 

1888. 



j6K 4-7ov 



The Library 

of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1SS8, 

By JOHN MURPHY & CO., 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



SANCTO JOSEPHO 

VIRO MARINE, DE QUA NATUS EST JESUS 

CCELITUM DECORI, 

VIT.E NOSTRA SPEI CERTISSIMLE 

MUNDI COLUMINI. 



Whenever St. Joseph's name was heard in 
Heaven, all the other Saints respectfully bowed 
their heads towards this Spouse of the Virgin 
Mother, and cast upon him looks of congratula- 
tion upon his incomparable dignity. (Insinuation, 
Divin. Pietat.j Lib. iv, Cap. xii.) 



INTRODUCTORY. 



TT has pleased our Lord to declare that 
the heart of St. Gertrude is a delight- 
ful abode for Him, and this revelation is 
confirmed by the following words of the 
Church in the Office for the Saint's Feast: 
" To manifest the merits of a Spouse so dear 
to Him, Jesus Christ has made known that 
He dwells in Gertrude's heart as in an abode 
of delight." The prayers for the Feast 
attest likewise, and in stronger terms, the 
Church's approbation : " O God," we read 
therein, "O God, Who hast prepared for 
Thyself in the heart of Gertrude a delight- 
ful abode, etc." 

This heart being then in the eyes of the 
Church, a temple, a sanctuary, a tabernacle 
of Jesus Christ, Christian piety, far from 

5 



6 Introductory. 

being misled, is, on the contrary, assured 
of instruction and edification, in making it 
the object of an attentive study. 

" But," some will say, " Jesus, the Heav- 
enly Father, the Holy Spirit dwell in the 
hearts of all the Saints, in all hearts and 
souls filled with living charity, for so our 
Lord has declared; why then should ths 
Church designate thus, in God's name, Ger- 
trude's heart as an abode of Jesus Christ?'' 

Evidently, because Jesus Himself deigned 
to honor especially the heart of His spouse ; 
for Gertrude is indeed privileged among 
the spouses of Jesus Christ* To be con- 
vinced of this one needs but read the fol- 
lowing words of the Heart of Jesus to 
Gertrude : 

" I have chosen to dwell in thee, and find 
in thee My delight.f 

*Sexagintasunt reginse . . . et adolescentularuin 
non est numerus : una est coluinba mea, perfecta 
mea. (Cant, vi, 7, 8.) 

f Insin., L. I, Cap. xiv, xviii, edit. Salisburgens., 
1662. 



Introductory, 7 

"In thee I wish to amass My treasures 
and collect all the riches of My grace ; and 
if any desire and seek these goods, I will 
that they find them in thee.* 

" I have made of thy heart a channel 
united to Mine, and through which waves 
of divine consolation shall flow into hum- 
ble, confiding souls that seek it of thee.f 

" Whatever a soul hopes to obtain through 
thy intercession, will surely be granted it. J 

11 1 wish to clothe Myself in thee : con- 
cealed under this protecting veil, My Hand 
may thus be enabled to seize sinners and do 
them good, without being wounded by their 
stings. I desire likewise to clothe thee in 
Myself, so as to communicate the same 
honors and favors to all whom thou wilt 
bring nigh to Me by recalling them to thy 
memory. || 

" I attest upon My Omnipotence, that I 

*Insin., L. I, Cap. xix. 
t Ibid., L. in, Cap. lxvii. 
J Ibid., L. I, Cap. xv, xvii. 
|| Ibid., L. ill, Cap. xviii. 



8 Introductory. 

desire to take no complacency in any crea- 
ture, without at the same time delighting 
Myself in thee. My love unites Me to thee 
by bonds so interlaced, that I will not live 
happy without thee.* 

" Thou may est give Me thy orders as if 
thou wert a queen, a sovereign : never was 
servant more prompt to obey his mis: 
commands than I will be to comply with 
all thy desires." f 

Such indeed, among many others of like 
import, are the words St. Gertrude herself 
declares she heard from the mouth of Jesus 
Christ. Hence, the following, also from our 
Lord, addressed to souls connected with 
Gertrude by a holy friendship, will not sur- 
prise the reader : 

" One is ever assured of finding Me when 
seeking Me either in the Sacrament of the 
Altar, or in the soul and heart of My 
beloved spouse Gertrude. % 

*Insin., L. i, Cap. xii; L. in, Cap. Y. 
flbid., L. in, Cap. xxxiii. 
J Ibid., L. i, Cap.iV. 



Introductory. 9 

" Her soul is so dear to Me that I have 
made it My refuge. And concealing Myself 

in I rind consolation for the on:: 
men heap upon Me.* 

3 all in all to Me : love has made 
Me her captive, and united her to Me even 
as the fire melts and fuses into one mass 
diver or gold.T 

" She is a lily I love to hold in My Hand ; 
she is My embalmed rose, t 

" Gertrude's heart is as a safe bridge over 
which one may safely reach Me without 
falling or growing dizzy." || 

Finally, a prayer of the Heart of Jesus 
to His Heavenly Father contains within 
itself and crowns all these praises : 

" O Holy Father, for Thy eternal glory, 
may Gertrude's heart pour out upon men the 
treasures enclosed in My Human Heart." § 

* Insin., L. i, Cap. iv. 

p. iv. 
J Ibid., L. I, Cap. iv. 
[Ibid., L. I, Cap. xv. 
§ Ibid., L. in, Cap. xxx« 



10 Introductory. 

Having heard these accents of the love 
of a God, one may no longer doubt that 
Gertrude's heart is a most privileged one, 
and Gertrude a spouse loved with an espe- 
cial predilection. But what can be the 
secret of this predilection of Jesus Christ ? 
The Church aids us to discover it, when she 
tells us that our Lord, before taking up His 
abode in Gertrude's heart, there prepared 
Himself a dwelling according to His de- 
sires; and Gertrude herself reveals the 
secret, laying open before us in detail the 
amorous industry of Jesus in fashioning 
her heart according to His own. 

To study, to contemplate in the writings 
of St. Gertrude the common work of her 
soul and Jesus Christ's love, — is the object 
of this little book. No doubt, it will foil 
far short of what the author so earnestly 
desires it should be — a faithful portrayal 
of the spirit of the Saint, as evinced in the 
original ; yet, in spite of this, he hopes his 
readers will find these pages both interesting 
and useful — interesting, because therein the 



Introductory. 11 

heart of St. Gertrude is laid bare before 
them, and what Jesus so loved must needs be 
ever lovely and attractive — useful, because 
the lessons Jesus gave Gertrude are ap- 
plicable to all Christians, and He will not 
fail to prepare for Himself a delightful 
abode in the hearts of all who hearken to 
His words with the avidity of Gertrude. 

Moreover, it was for our instruction, and 
only in obedience to Jesus Who commanded 
her to do so, that Gertrude committed to 
writing these lessons of her Spouse. 

u I could not," she says, " resolve to yield 
to our Lord's desires on this point ; and one 
day He said to me : ' Thou shalt not leave 
this world until thou hast written what I 
desire thee to write. I exact this of thee, 
that these writings may be, in the far future, 
a pledge of My divine bounty . . . through 
them will I benefit souls innumerable . . . 
whilst thou writest, I will press thy heart 
to Mine, and instil into it, drop by drop, 
what thou shouldst say.' " 

When the book was finished, Jesus ap- 



12 Introductory. 

peared to her and said : " This book is 
Mine, and I have steeped it in the depths 
of My Heart ; each letter has there imbibed 
the sweetness of My Divinity, and whoever, 
for My glory, shall read it with humble de- 
votion, will derive therefrom the fruits of 
eternal salvation for his soul. 

" For the salvation of mankind, I change, 
at the Mass, bread and wine into My Body 
and Blood : so, in like manner, have I con- 
secrated this book by My benediction, that 
it may be conducive to the salvation of 
those who read it with humility and devo- 
tion. 

" Not a letter in it but charms Me, for 
each exhales the ineffable sweetness of the 
perfume of My Mercy. This book is Mine, 
and I bless it ; I adorn it with the roses of 
My Five Wounds, and I seal it with the 
Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, as so many 
seals attesting my possession of it, and no 
one shall be able to take it from Me."* 

*Insin., L. n, Cap. x; L. V, Cap. xxxv. Vide 
alia, Cap. xxxvi et xxxvii. 



Introductory. 13 

Our Lord has given to St. Gertrude's 
book titles at once mysterious and explana- 
tory. He calls it: Insinuations of the 
Divine Bounty, Insinuationes Divince Pie- 
tatis; Memorial of the Divine Bounty, 
Memorials Divince Pietatis ; Messenger of 
the Divine Bounty, Legatns Divince Pie- 
tatis. One readily perceives that this divine 
goodness pervading every page is the Heart 
of Jesus, so that the book is truly a Mes- 
senger of the Heart of Jesus, sent to souls 
to awaken in them the memory of His 
love and fill them with its divine influ- 
ences. 

Under the common title of Insinuationes 
Divince Pietatis, is published a volume in 
five books, the first and second of which 
were written by St. Gertrude's own hand, 
about the year 1289. The last three were 
only dictated by her, or written under her 
direction or by her orders, the irrefutable 
proof of which fact is found in chapter 
XXV, of the fifth book, where we read: 
" When this book was finished, Jesus ap- 



14 Introductory. 

peared to her." Then follow the divine 
promises already referred to. 

The Saint's secretary also gives us an 
account of the last moments and death of 
the Spouse of Jesus Christ. 

The material of the present volume is 
taken principally from the first, second and 
third books of the Insinuations. 

The first contains a biographical notice 
of St. Gertrude, and an abridged picture 
of her virtues. The author of this book 
was, for several years, the Saint's most in- 
timate and confidential friend.* 

In the second, St. Gertrude herself, and 
in the third, a depositary of her soul's se- 
crets exposes the favors Jesus accorded her 

-Ad (Dei) laudem, ea quae multis annis secreta 
quadarn familiaritate ab hac sancta virgine perci- 
pere potui, revelabo. (Lib. I, Cap. vi.) This con- 
fidant was perhaps the pious and learned Theodoric 
of Alpudia. Lanspergius says of him in his preface 
to the Insinuations* : " Qui cum sancta hac virgine 
yaria saepenumero habebat colloquia, ejusque spir- 
itum ac verba magnopere praedicabat. Quo etiam 
auctore liber natus est." 



Introductory. 15 

and the instructions He gave her in pre- 
paring her heart for the grace of perfect 
union. 

We have borrowed from the fifth book 
the description therein given of St. Ger- 
trude's happy end. All is delicious honey 
in Gertrude's book ; and in reading it we 
are reminded of this counsel of the Holy 
Spirit : ''It is not good for a man to eat 
much honey." 

It had been easy indeed, were it neces- 
sarv, to adduce pages of illustrious testi- 
mony in favor of the writings of a Saint 
whom Teresa of Jesus and Francis de Sales 
honored and loved as their spiritual mother, 
but the veneration the Church pays them 
renders their testimony all sufficient ; and 
moreover, the Church herself declares that 
Gertrude was favored with divine revela- 
tions, and that her spiritual writings are 
wholesome food for Christian piety.* 

* Office of the Saint, Lesson VI.— The holy abbot 
of Liesse, Louis de Blois, who lived about the year 
1530, was accustomed to read over all St. Gertrude's 



16 Introductory. 

We shall make no effort to prove that in 
these marvellous communications between 
the Heart of Jesus Christ and Gertrude's, 
there is nothing that should be repugnant 
to the pious belief of the reader. This book 
is addressed to souls who value the judg- 
ment of the Church far above learned dis- 
sertation, and the Church recognizes that it 
has pleased Jesus to love thus His spouse 
Gertrude. Moreover, the lives of all the 
Saints reveal facts not less marvellous, and 
it is only the unthinking who are astonished 
that the God made man for love of man 
should thus deign to converse familiarly, in 
the present life, with those whose Brother 
He has become, and who are destined to a 
life of familiarity with Him in eternity. 

writings twelve times a year; and he also advised 
those in whose spiritual advancement he was inter- 
ested, to read them. The friend of his from whom 
we obtain this information adds : " The venerable 
abbot's writings are redolent of the spirit of St. 
Gertrude ; there is scarcely a page of his precious 
works in which one cannot trace ideas evidently 
drawn from the source so dear to him.' , 



THE HEART OF ST. GERTRUDE; 



OR, 



A Heart According to That of Jesus. 



CHAPTER I. 

rpHE illustrious order of St. Benedict has 
-*- the honor of having given to the 
Church three virgin Saints named Gertrude. 

The first was the daughter of the duke 
of Brabant, Pepin de Landen, and his 
virtuous wife, Iduberge. On becoming a 
widow, Iduberge founded the monastery of 
Nivelle, and there consecrated to God her 
daughter Gertrude, who died in the year 
664, at the age of thirty-three. 

Another Gertrude, daughter of Pepin the 
Short and Berbertha or Bertrade, died in 
2 17 



18 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

the odor of sanctity, and was venerated 
after her death at the monastery of Neu- 
stadt, which Charlemagne, her brother, had 
founded. This blessed death occurred about 
the year 794. 

But the most celebrated of the three 
Benedictine virgins is she whose memory 
the Roman Church honors on the 15th of 
November, and it is this Gertrude who 
forms the subject of our book. 

Several centuries elapsed between her life 
and those of the other two. They who deny 
this could not certainly have read her writ- 
ings attentively ; for these give undeniable 
proofs that Gertrude devoutly celebrated 
the feasts of St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. 
Francis — likewise, that she was not only a 
contemporary, and a friend of St. Mech- 
tilde, but probably her sister. 

Gertrude was born at Eisleben, in the 
Duchy of Mansfield, on the feast of the 
Epiphany, 1222. Her parents were noble 
and rich. 

" In this blessed child," says an old his- 



Gertrude's Childhood. 19 

torian, "the fruits seemed to precede the 
flowers ; her first steps crushed under foot 
the vanities of the world, and her first salu- 
tation to it was an eternal adieu. " And in 
reality she was not yet five years old, when 
with her parents' consent she retired to the 
monastery of Rodersdorff, in the diocese of 
Halberstadt. 

Innocence was not the only virtue of the 
little Gertrude. Her good sense, prudence 
and piety were wonderful in one so young, 
and the amiability of her disposition was 
such as to win all hearts. To these quali- 
ties were added rare intellectual gifts, which 
with her love of study soon caused her to 
outstrip all her companions. At a very 
early age, she became familiar with the 
Latin language, and her fondness for liter- 
ature amounted to a passion. Moreover, 
the purity of her heart permitted her to 
see clearly the true and beautiful, whilst 
the serenity that reigned in her soul could 
but favor in a remarkable degree her intel- 
lectual progress. 



20 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

It was thus Gertrude grew from child- 
hood to womanhood, preserved from even 
the shadow of evil, thanks to the continued 
vigilance of Him whose love ever encom- 
passed her ; and hence "it is Him we must 
thank, in Gertrude's name," says one who 
had her holiest confidence. May He be 
blessed throughout eternity ! * 



* Synopsis vitae S. Gertrudis, auctore Laurent. 
Clement. Benedictin. — Insinuate Lib. I, Cap. i. 



CHAPTEE II. 

^1 ERTRUDE had now reached her 
^^ twenty-fifth year; her piety and 
many other beautiful qualities of mind and 
heart all combined to make her the ornament 
and treasure of the monastery of Heldelfs, 
when suddenly, enlightened from on high, 
she sees what no one else saw, and what 
hitherto had been unsuspected by herself — 
her soul was sterile, disordered, guilty even, 
and God invited her to be converted to 
Him. 

I. 

Let us listen to Gertrude's own account 
of this great event of her life : 

"May my soul bless Thee, O God, my 
Creator! May all within me sing Thy 
praises ! With what patient charity didst 

21 



22 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

Thou not shut Thy eyes, as it were, to the 
years of my infancy, childhood and youth, 
spent in the pursuit of vanity ! For did I 
not indeed live as if a pagan among pagan 
people, ignoring Thee, my God, who dost 
reward the good and punish the wicked? 
Such was my folly that until I had nearly 
completed my twenty-fifth year, I would 
probably, without remorse or scruple, have 
permitted myself any thought, word or 
action, inconsiderate or even guilty, had 
not Thy mercy restrained me, either by in- 
creasing in my heart that natural horror 
of evil and relish for good so early im- 
planted there, or by exciting the vigilance 
and zeal of the guardians of my soul. 

"And yet, notwithstanding such conduct, 
what was there Thou hadst not done for 
me? When but in my fifth year, Thou 
didst introduce me into the sanctuary of 
the religious life, remitting; me to the care 
of Thy dearest friends. Ah ! should I not 
have spent every instant in blessing Thee ! 
but alas! so negligent, so guilty indeed was 



Gertrudes Conversion. 23 

my life, that, if possible, it had diminished 
Thy divine beatitude, and obscured that 
glory it should have been my most ardent 
desire to increase. Touched by Thy grace, 
my heart now deplores these wanderings, 
and Thou knowest, Thou alone knowest the 
bitterness of my regret." 

It is but natural to ask, what then 
Gertrude's wanderings and errors were. 
Truth forces us to say that they were far 
other than those of sinners, being in reality 
nothing more serious than a certain juvenile 
levity, puerile vanities and an excessive love 
of study, literature and the sciences, as we 
shall soon learn from her own accusations 
against self. * 

. * All the Saints, even the most innocent, have re- 
garded themselves as the greatest of sinners, which 
sentiment may be explained in several ways. "We 
will content ourselves with giving but one explana- 
tion as contained in the following fines borrowed 
from the life of St. Francis of Assissium (Wading, 
annal.) : " A companion of St. Francis said to him 
one day : ' Father, everybody runs after you and 
venerates you as a saint : now, tell me, what is 



24 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

"Buried in an abyss of humiliation, I 
adore Thee, O Father of mercy, and praise 
Thy unbounded goodness; for this it was 
that when I walked in the paths of perdi- 
tion ever bore me in mind, and meditated 
upon my soul, not indeed in designs of ven- 
geance, but of love, seeking to exalt my 
baseness by the multitude and grandeur of 
its benefits, as if I had distinguished myself 
among men by the life of an Angel. " 

" It was in Advent, and on the next feast 
of the Epiphany I would complete my 
twenty-fifth year. Thou didst now fill my 
heart with an indescribable longing and 
unrest, whose salutary effects w r ere to give 
me a disgust for the frivolities and levity 
of youth ; this was the first step of Thy love 

your opinion of yourself. ' Francis replied, ' I am 
the vilest of sinners.' ' How can you think that ?' 
was the answer ; 'you are not a thief, a murderer, 
an adulterer. 7 ' If such sinners as you have men- 
tioned,' said Francis, 'had received the graces I 
have, they would have made better use of them, 
serving God more zealously and advancing His 
glory far more than I have done.' M 



Gertrude's Conversion. 25 

in preparing my heart for Thyself. Then 
gradually, Thou didst overthrow the fortress 
of vanity and curiosity, which pride had 
raised in my interior, notwithstanding I 
bore the habit and name of a religious, 
alas, so un worthily !" 

II. 

"This unrest lasted until Monday, the 
27th of the following January. That happy 
day saw an end to my puerile vanities, and 
the shades that had enveloped my soul were 
dissipated. 

" The feast of the Purification of Thy 
chaste Mother approached. I was in the 
dormitory, after Compline, just at the beau- 
tiful hour of evening twilight, when one of 
our aged Sisters passed by. According to 
the rule of our Order, I made an inclina- 
tion towards her in token of respect. Rais- 
ing my head, w T hom should I behold but 
Thyself, O my Beloved, my Redeemer, O 
Most Beautiful among the children of men! 



26 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

" Thou didst appear to me as an amiable, 
modest youth of about sixteen years of age, 
thus not disdaining to accommodate Thy- 
self to my infirmities, in clothing Thyself 
with a form which Thou didst know would 
be pleasing to my eyes. 

" Standing before me, Thou didst say to 
me in accents of indescribable sweetness : 
1 Thy salvation is near at hand ; why dost 
thou so afflict thyself about it ? Hast thou 
no counsellor, no friend who can assuage 
thy ever-renewed sorrows ? ' 

" These were Thy words, and suddenly, 
though fully conscious that I was still in 
the dormitory, I beheld myself in the choir, 
in the corner where I was accustomed to 
make my careless, tepid meditations, and 
there Thou didst speak to me again : ' I will 
save thee and deliver thee ; fear not/ Thou 
didst say, taking my right hand in Thy 
own noble hand, as if in pledge of Thy 
words, and adding : ' With My enemies thou 
hast licked the earth ; suck now the honey 
sticking to the thorns ; return to Me ; I will 



Gertrudes Conversion. 27 

welcome thee tenderly, and inebriate thee 
with the torrent of My divine joys. 1 * 

"Out of myself with excess of joy on 
hearing these words, I endeavored to ap- 
proach Thee, but now saw, for the first 
time, that a long hedge, so long that I could 
see neither end of it, lay between Thee and 
me. I longed to force my way through, 
but it was bristling with sharp thorns, and 
in no part of it could I perceive the least 
break that would allow me to reach Thee, 
Thou only joy of my heart. 

"And now, whilst burning with desire 
of reaching Thee, I detested and bewailed 
my sins and defects, of which this hedge was 
the figure ; Thou, Father of the poor, didst 
extend Thy hand to mine, and immediately, 
without the least effort, I was beside Thee. 

"My eyes fell upon Thy Hand, and there 
I saw, sweet Jesus, the scars of those Wounds 
that paid all our debts. 

"And now, from this moment, my soul 
was enlightened, my heart softened, Thy 
powerful grace extinguishing within me all 



28 The Heart of St, Gertrude. 

disorderly passion for worldly learning, and 
detaching me from all my vanities. What 
had heretofore charmed me, now appeared 
contemptible. I commenced to taste only 
Thyself, O my God. I had not known the 
interior of my soul ; Thou didst acquaint 
me with it; and from this hour henceforth, 
in the depths of my heart, hast Thou con- 
versed with me as a dear friend living under 
the same roof, as a tender Spouse with His 
Beloved. 

"I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I return 
Thee thanks, not as I should, but as I am 
able, for having, with so much amiability 
and sweetness, commenced the work of 
my conversion. Blessed be Thy merciful 
wisdom which didst devise so engaging a 
manner of bringing under Thy yoke my 
stubborn, rebellious will, and making light 
and easy for me a burden I had believed 
insupportable." * 

*Lib. I, Cap. ii; Lib. I, Cap. i; Lib. I, Cap. 
xxiii. — The Benedictine Father, Laurent Clement, 
fixes (and with some degree of probability) the 



CHAPTER III. 

Sbrlmta^ jSandifiorfurtt* 

/H ERTRUDE'S heart was turned to God: 
^-^ the orators and poets of pagan Rome 
no longer charmed her ears and consumed 
her moments of leisure. She now devoted 
to the study of the Fathers of the Church 
and to meditation upon the Holy Scrip- 
tures, all the hours not allotted to prayer 
or the work of the Community. Very soon, 
mystic theology had no secrets from her; 
God taught her to penetrate the most 
hidden sense of the Inspired Books, and 

period of Gertrude's birth in the year 1222. Hence, 
her conversion took place, January 27, 1247. — We 
lay especial stress upon these dates as important 
epochs in the life of our Saint. She herself fur- 
nishes us all the data and information, save that 
of one year. 

29 



30 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

she was enabled to instruct the clergy 
themselves, who often had recourse to her 
for enlightenment. Regarding herself as 
a depository of divine treasures, she felt 
constrained to dispense them to all around 
her ; and not content with communicating 
to these alone, the lights which illumined 
her from Heaven, in the hours of study 
or prayer, she carefully preserved the 
memory of them in books written by her 
own hand, thus ensuring them to future 
generations, 

Meanwhile, Jesus continued the work of 
sanctifi cation which was to prepare for 
Himself a delightful abode in her heart. 
Jesus was working in and with Gertrude 
daily ; but there are two especially memo- 
rable days which were characterized by 
such an abundance of marvellous graces 
that she has seen fit to mark the dates 
thereof: the eve of the Annunciation of our 
Lady, March 24, 1247, and the feast of the 
Ascension of the same year. She says : 



Gertrude s Sanctification. 31 

I. 

" Among the many graces received from 
Thee, O Light of my soul, from the hour 
of Thy first apparition, there is one that 
far outweighs all others. Heretofore I had 
never carefully considered the interior of 
my soul; but now my gaze was directed 
towards it, and illumined by Thee I dis- 
cerned much therein that was intolerable 
to Thy sanctity ; so great was the disorder 
reigning throughout that it were indeed an 
abode utterly unworthy of Thee. And yet 
my unsightliness repelled Thee not, my 
most loving Jesus; and in the frequent 
Communions of the days which followed, I 
saw Thee sensibly present, although not 
clear and distinct as in open day, but rather 
as if enveloped in auroral mists. 

" Thou didst wish by this amiable con- 
descension, to encourage me to continue the 
work which would prepare me for the full 
enjoyment of Thy presence and love. 

" Scarcely had I set about this task, when 



32 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

Thou didst deign to visit and fill me with 
the blessings of Thy sweetness — me, so un- 
worthy of such favors. It was on a Sunday 
after Matins, and the eve of the Annuncia- 
tion. 

" How shall I describe the ineffable joys 
of Thy visit? I cannot find words to do 
so. I can but immolate, in the depths of 
my heart, a host of praise, conjuring Thee 
often to repeat this favor to myself and Thy 
elect, making us experience the sweetness 
of such union and joy as until that hour I 
had never imagined. Everything in my 
past life shows clearly that this was a gra- 
tuitous gift of Thy love. 

" Thus didst Thou labor with marvellous 
suavity to detach my heart from everything 
and draw it to Thee. 

II. 

" Again, one day, in the interval between 
the feasts of the Resurrection and Ascen- 
sion of our Lord, seated in the garden near 



Gertrude's Sand Ijicat ion. 33 

a little lake, I let my thoughts revel in the 
beauties of the spot. I was charmed with 
the transparency of the waters, the refresh- 
ing coolness of the shade, the joyous flights 
of numberless birds, especially the doves, 
that flew hither and thither around me, but 
more than all, w T ith the mysterious peace- 
fulness of my retreat. 

" It was then, O Jesus, Author of all true 
joys, Thou didst whisper to my soul : ' If, 
by gratitude, thou makest ascend to Me the 
waters of My graces ; if, increasing in vir- 
tue, thou clothest thyself with good works 
like a rich verdure ; if, detached from all 
earthly objects, thou art free like the dove 
to soar towards heaven, there to abide with 
Me, far from the noise of the world, thou 
preparest and givest Me a more delightful 
abode in thy heart than that of any garden, 
how beautiful soever it be. 

"All day long, this thought was before 

me ; and at night, kneeling to say the last 

prayers as usual before retiring, suddenly, 

my mind was filled with these words of the 

3 



34 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

Gospel : 'If any one love Me, he will keep 
My word, and My Father will love him, 
and we will come to him, and will make 
Our abode with him.' At the same instant, 
my heart of flesh, my corruptible heart felt 
that Thou hadst entered therein and taken 
possession of it, Thou, my God, my only 
Beloved ! 

"Oh ! that my eyes could have shed an 
ocean of bloody tears to wash away the 
sink of iniquity within me, since Thou, 
Sovereign Dignity, didst deign to make 
Thy abode with me ! Oh ! that I could, 
just for an hour, have snatched from my 
breast this heart, and rending it in pieces, 
cast it thus into a living brasier, that puri- 
fied from the least stains, it might become 
not indeed worthy, but less unworthy of 
serving Thee as an abode ! " 

"We have seen that Jesus draws Gertrude 
to Himself, contracts an alliance with her, 
and finally, establishes Himself in her heart. 
He must now fully assimilate that heart to 
His own, and consummate that union the 



Gertrude s Sanctification. 35 

perfection of which is expressed by St. 
Paul in these words : " I live, not now I, 
but Jesus Christ liveth in me." 

New favors, of which the Saint has given 
us a detailed description, manifest in vivid 
colors these supernatural operations of grace. 
Gertrude mentions three of the principal 
ones : the impression of the Wounds of Jesus 
in her heart, which took place during the 
winter of 1249; the Transverberation of 
her heart, on the third Sunday of Advent, 
1254; the transforming and deifying visit 
of the Infant Jesus to her heart, on the 
Christmas of the same year. 

III. 

" It was during the winter of the first, or 
perhaps the second year after my conversion, 
that I found in a little book, the following 
prayer. 

" i O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living 
God, grant me to aspire after the possession 
of Thee ; enkindle in my heart an ardent 



36 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

desire, a burning thirst for Thee. May I 
live and breathe in Thee, sweetest Jesus, 
and may all the pulsations of my heart, be 
directed to Thee, O Thou Supreme Happi- 
ness! 

" ' With Thy Precious Blood, most merci- 
ful Lord, engrave Thy Wounds upon my 
heart, that reading therein Thy sufferings 
and Thy love, I may be excited to compas- 
ate them, and the fire of ardent love for 
Thee, be enkindled within me. Grant that 
every creature may become as naught to me, 
and Thou alone my all/ 

" This prayer pleased me very much, and 
I often recited it. It was during this same 
winter, soon after finding this little prayer, 
w T hilst seated in the refectory, near a Sister 
to whom I had confided the secret of several 
divine favors vouchsafed me, that I sud- 
denly become conscious that our Lord, in 
spite of my unworthiness had deigned to 
hear me. I felt, O my God, that thou didst 
distinctly imprint upon my heart, the Stig- 
mata of Thy Five Adorable Wounds ; and 



Gertrude's Sanctifieation. 37 

notwithstanding my exceeding unworthi- 
ness, Thy infinite bounty, has, even to this 
hour, preserved therein the impression ! 

" Later on, in the seventh year of my con- 
version, towards the approach of Advent, a 
person, yielding to my importunity, daily 
recited before the crucifix the following 
short prayer for me : 

" ' O most loving Lord, I pray Thee by 
Thy wounded Heart to pierce Gertrude's 
with the arrows of Thy love, that being 
freed from all terrestrial dross, it may 
be thoroughly penetrated by the divine 
action.' 

" Shortly after, on the third Sunday of 
Advent, dining Mass, and especially as I 
going to the altar, Thou didst enkindle 
in me, O my God, so ardent a desire for 
this favor that I was constrained to cry out, 
in the depths of my soul, ' Lord, I confess 
that I have done nothing to render myself 
worthy of the least of Thy gifts, and yet I 
dare conjure Thy bounty that regarding 
not mine, but the merits of souls here pres- 



38 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

ent, Thou wouldst deign to transpierce my 
heart with an arrow of Thy love.' 

" I felt immediately that my prayer was 
answered. Having returned to my place, 
after receiving the Sacrament of Love, and 
casting my eyes upon the crucifix in the 
sanctuary, I saw escaping from the Wound 
in the Side a ray of light, pointed as an 
arrow. 

" It inundated me with torrents of de- 
light ; but the desires of my soul were not 
fully satisfied until the following Wed- 
nesday. 

" The Mass was nearly ended, the priest 
reading the words which recalled Thy ador- 
able Incarnation. I was not altogether 
recollected and attentive, yet notwithstand- 
ing, it was then Thy arrow wounded my 
heart and Thou didst say to me : ' I will 
that the waves of thy affection rise to 
Me.' 

" Thou, O God, Who readest all my 
secrets, knowest that Thy graces in my 
heart have always been as royal diamonds 



rtrudes Scuictificaiion. 39 

Jost in an unclean vase. Oh! inspire then, 
him who reads these writings, with a tender 
compassion for Thee, that, admiring the 
bounty with which for the salvation of 
souls Thou hast consented to leave even 
until now Thy precious jewels in such a 
vile receptacle, and endeavoring to supply 
my deficiencies, he say to Thee with heart 
and lips : 

" ' Father, O God from Whom all good 
proceeds, Thou dost merit all praise: to Thee 
be honor, benediction and glory ! ' 

" It was the anniversary of that blessed 
night in which Heaven distilled upon earth 
the dew of the Divinity : whilst with my 
Sisters, exciting my soul to the holy offices 
of servant of the glorious Mother of the 
Infant Man God, I felt that a tender, new 
born Infant was placed in my heart, At 
the same instant, I beheld my soul entirely 
transformed ; its color (if I may be per- 
mitted to call by the name of color, that to 
which nothing visible is comparable) was 
that of the infant ; and I was filled with an 



40 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

ineffable comprehension of these ravishing 
words : ' God will be all in all/ 

" Jesus now said to me : ' As I, in My 
Divinity, am the figure of the substance of 
My Father, so thou shalt be the living 
image of My Humanity ; and as the sun 
communicates to the air, his own clearness 
and light, thus will I deify thy soul, pene- 
trating it with the rays of My Divinity.' 

" O power, O mercy of God ! truly infinite 
indeed ! how hast Thou poured the inappre- 
ciable liquor of Thy graces into a vase of 
clay, a vase destined of itself to ignominy ! " 

IV. 

We have already observed, and St. Ger- 
trude herself remarks it, that these marvel- 
ous favors and others with which she was 
honored, for instance, the interchange of 
hearts between Jesus and herself, conceal 
operations beyond the ken of human under- 
standing. She designates them in her mys- 
tic language by such words as attraction, 



trude's Satictification. 41 

union, inhabitation, consummation. Noth- 
ing binders our contemplating the image 

of thai consummation in the scene just 

described, and no doubt it will be profitable 
for us to do bo. The end of sanctity is indeed 
the being fully transformed into Jesus, and 
participating thus, in a measure incompre- 
hensible, in the plenitude of the divine 
filiation. Now Jesus Himself in the Gos- 
pel, has given us clearly to understand, 
that the humility, sweetness and simplicity 
of His Heart, are just such as we see in 
childhood : for thus He expresses the per- 
fection of sanctity when He says : u Who- 
soever, therefore, shall humble himself as 
this little child, he is the greater in the 
kingdom of Heaven." Hence, Jesus con- 
summated this sanctifying work in Ger- 
trude's heart, when under the form of the 
Infant God, He transformed it into the 
image of His Humanity, and inundated it 
with the rays of His Divine Nature. 

Let us observe that these graces were not 
the work of sanctitv, but rather successive 



42 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

compensations for work accomplished, and 
encouragement to new labors, these favors 
crowning virtues already obtained, and 
inviting Gertrude to the acquirement of 
others. The transformation which the 
Heart of Jesus wrought in Gertrude's 
progressed by slow degrees only, and it 
was not yet consummated, when nine years 
after her conversion, she exclaimed, " I have 
seen my heart transformed. " And long 
years after, she still with Jesus pursued this 
grand work, striving earnestly to make her 
heart humble, sweet, pure, abandoned to 
God's good pleasure, and devoured with 
zeal for the salvation of souls, — in a word, 
a heart modelled upon that of Jesus. 

Gertrude herself will reveal to us the 
labors that began and finally consummated 
its transformation, but she will first tell us 
how great a part the Blessed Virgin Mary 
had in this grand and beautiful work. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Wjp jRpm % $&*»& Tirgm fait 
ju ©orirutr^s jlantiifinittxm* 

n^TO saint probably has understood bet- 
-*-^ ter than Gertrude, the necessity and 
power of Mary's assistance in the sanctifica- 
tion of souls. Our Lord Himself was pleased 
to manifest to her the incomparable dignity 
to which the Blessed Trinity had exalted 
our Lady, making her co-operation essential 
and decisive in the execution of the divine 
plans. 

I. 

One day, whilst chanting at Matins the 
Ave Maria, Gertrude saw gush forth from 
the Heart of the Father, of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost, three streams which pene- 
trated to the Blessed Virgin's heart, and 

43 



44 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

thence remounted to their source ; whilst at 
the same time, she heard an interior voice 
saying in the depths of her soul, "After the 
power of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, 
the tender mercy of the Holy Spirit, nothing 
approaches the power, the wisdom, the ten- 
der mercy of Mary." And she was made 
understand, on the same occasion, that this 
effusion from the Heart of the Trinity takes 
place, every time a soul on earth devoutly 
repeats the Ave Maria ; and it thus through 
the ministry of the Blessed Virgin, dispenses 
the dews of a new joy among the Saints 
and Angels, and itself receives an increase 
of those spiritual treasures with which the 
Incarnation of the Son of God had already 
enriched it. 

It was indeed for love of Mary that God 
had pity on the human race, and commu- 
nicated to it His divine riches, to partici- 
pate in which man must first salute Mary. 
Gertrude, one day, heard Jesus say to His 
Mother, "It is for thy sake, O Queen, O 
Mother most loving, I have had pity on 



The Blessed Virgin Mary. 45 

sinners. " And again, Mary spoke thus to 
Gertrude. " In favor of those who recall 
to me the joy of my soul on the day of the 
Incarnation, I will realize the desires of the 
Church when she chants: "O show thyself 
a mother : " Monstra te esse matrem. Yes, 
I will show myself a Mother to them — 
Mother of the King of Glory and Mother 
of suppliant man — of the first, by display- 
ing my power to assist, — of the second, by 
dilating for him the bowels of my compas- 
sion. " 

Gertrude had not always understood this 
double Maternity of the Blessed Virgin, and 
one Christmas day, whilst chanting the 
words : First-Born of the Virgin Mary : 
Primorjenitus Mariae Virginia, she said 
within herself: "It seems to me that the 
title of Only Son were a far more fitting 
one for Jesus than First Born." But just 
then our Lady appeared and answered her 
thus: "No, not Only Son, but First Born 
is the fitting title ; for after Jesus, my best 
loved Son, or rather I should say, truly in 



46 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

and by Him, I have engendered ye all in 
the bowels of my charity, and ye have 
become my sons, the brothers of Jesus." 



II. 



In the following manner, Mary deigned 
to make Gertrude understand yet more 
clearly the sovereignty she exercises over 
the Heart of Jesus in virtue of her Divine 
Maternity, and also her tenderness in still 
recognizing as the brothers of Jesus, souls 
even defiled by sin: She saw, one day, 
legions of angels giving their invincible 
protection to souls grouped around Mary : 
these were the Blessed Virgin's devoted 
servants — whilst to the shelter of her vast 
royal mantle which Mary spread out to 
cover them, ran multitudes of animals of 
every sort, which the glorious Queen of 
Heaven caressed with her hand, one after 
another : these were sinners yet stained by 
their sins ; and the Blessed Virgin wished 
to show Gertrude by this, how she welcomes 



The Blessed Virgin Mary. 47 

and protects them when they have recourse 
to her mercy, hoping it may lead them to 
repentance and reconciliation with God. 

This Divine Mother manifested to Ger- 
trude, on the Feast of His glorious Nativity, 
her maternal authority over the Heart of 
Jesus as follows : 

Gertrude was saying the Salve Regina. 
When she came to these words : " Turn 
then, most Gracious Advocate, thine eyes of 
mercy towards us" she saw the Blessed 
Virgin holding the Divine Infant in her 
arms. Mary gently touched Him on the 
shoulder, and causing Him to turn His 
Face towards Gertrude and her companions : 
" Behold/' said she, " 'mine eyes of mercy ' — 
they are those of my Son, Jesus, and I turn 
them upon all who invoke me, for their 
eternal salvation." 

Jesus, on His side, revealed to Gertrude, 
in a thousand ways, the law He had imposed 
upon Himself of communicating His riches 
to man, only through the hands and Heart 
of Mary. 



48 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

During one of the early days of her con- 
version, a conversion which was begun on the 
feast of our Lady's Purification, and signally 
blessed on that of the Annunciation, Jesus 
said to Gertrude, " I give thee My sweet 
Mother as thy Protectress, I confide thee 
to her care." When the hour of trial came, 
Gertrude terrified, called upon Jesus to 
help her. He replied : " I have given thee 
My own most merciful Mother for thine, 
and it is through her, I will dispense my 
graces to thee ; have recourse to her in all 
thy necessities and thou wilt surely find 
strength and consolation." 

Despite these reiterated lessons of Jesus 
Christ and our Lady, Gertrude could not, 
at first, banish an apprehension, alas ! too 
common among Christians — she feared lest 
all these testimonies of respect, confidence 
and love for the Blessed Virgin might be 
prejudicial to the rights of her Divine Son; 
but He Himself gave her a new lesson on 
this subject which dissipated such scruples 
forever : 



The Blessed Virgin Mary. 49 

It was on the feast of the Annunciation. 
A priest in his instructions to the Commu- 
nity had so expatiated upon the virtues and 
grandeur of the Blessed Virgin, without 
mentioning the love of the Son of God 
in the Incarnation, that Gertrude felt 
worried and grieved. On returning from 
the sermon and passing an altar of our 
Lady, as usual she made an inclination 
before the statue, but with less warmth and 
devotion than formerly, directing her affec- 
tions rather towards Jesus, the blessed fruit 
of the Virgin's womb, and proposing to 
herself this intention every time she hence- 
forth saluted our Lady's image. 

Very soon after, however, she felt trou- 
bled, and wondered within herself if she 
had not displeased the powerful Queen of 
Heaven. Then Jesus Himself in all con- 
descension and sweetness answered her per- 
plexities thus : " Never fear, dear daughter, 
to displease My Mother by directing all thy 
affections to Me ; on the contrary, it pleases 
her. But to do away with thy scruples, 
4 



50 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

henceforth, in passing her altar, devoutly 
salute her image and neglect Mine." 
"Oh!" replied Gertrude, "God grant I 
may never act thus! No, Lord, never 
could my heart consent to this! Art Thou 
not my Only Good, my Salvation, my Life? 
and shall I neglect Thee, to lay my tribute 
of love at the feet of another? " " My dear 
daughter," said Jesus gently, "obey Me, 
and every time thou thus neglectest Me to 
salute My Mother, I will experience the 
same joy and thou merit the same recom- 
pense, as if thou hadst cheerfully sacrificed 
immense gains to increase My glory." 

Gertrude thus instructed, comprehended 
more clearly the Mystery of the Divine 
Mercy, which abandons the salvation of 
the world and the sanctification of souls, 
God's gifts, God Himself to the hands of a 
Woman, our Sister, our Mother ; and she 
ever after, besought Mary's intercession 
with increased fidelity and ardor. That 
her Communions might be worthy and 
profitable, she always conjured Mary to 



The Blessed Virgin Mary. 51 

prepare her for them ; and Mary thus 
invoked, ornamented her daughter with 
the jewels of her own virtues, so that Jesus 
made known to Gertrude the joy of His 
Heart, at finding her radiant in the reflec- 
tion of that beauty which alone, as sings 
the Church, could delight His gaze.* 

If Gertrude's heart became thus a pre- 
ferred abode of Jesus, it was only because 
Mary, listening to her prayers, prepared it 
for Him. One day at the hour of medita- 
tion, our Saint asked Jesus, " What can I 
do to please Thee yet more?" "Behold 
My Mother," was the answer, "endeavor 
to praise her worthily." Then Gertrude 
addressed Mary, as "the Paradise of de- 
lights," and congratulated her on having 
been chosen for the abode of her God, 
adding to these words of praise the follow- 
ing petition: " Obtain for me, I beg of thee, 
that my heart may be, in the eyes of God, 
adorned with such virtues as will cause Him 

*Sola placuisti Domino Nostro Jesu Christo. 
(Office of the Blessed Virgin). 



52 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

to deign select it for His dwelling." Mary 
testified that this prayer was agreeable to 
her, for it seemed to Gertrude that, at this 
same hour, the Blessed Virgin planted in 
her heart the roses of charity, the violets 
of humility — indeed, the various flowers of 
every virtue. 

IV. 

Soon, Gertrude's fears were no longer 
that she might honor our Lady too much, 
but too little. She felt the impossibility of 
ever herself paying the meed of respect and 
gratitude due this August Sovereign, this 
Universal Benefactress ; and the Heart of 
Jesus alone, it seemed to her, w T as capable 
of supplying men's deficiencies in honoring 
and loving our Lady. We find frequent 
expressions of this sentiment throughout 
Gertrude's writings. 

On the eve of one feast of the Assump- 
tion, deeply impressed with the thought 
that she had ever been sadly lacking in her 
duty towards the August Queen of Heaven, 



The Blessed Virgin Mary. 53 

Gertrude earnestly conjured our Lord Him- 
self to make amends for her defects, and 
render His Mother favorable to her. Then 
Jesus, tenderly embracing His Mother, and 
with other demonstrations of filial love for 
her, addressed her in these words: "Deign, 
O most loving Mother, to look upon this 
soul I have chosen for Mine own, and 
regard it with not less tenderness than if it 
had always been most faithful and zealous 
in thy service." 

Again, on the feast of Mary's Nativity, 
Gertrude with sighs and tears, accusing 
herself of her shortcomings towards our 
Queen, besought Jesus to repair her negli- 
gence, with this intention, reciting the Salve 
Regina, but offering it to Mary through the 
Heart of Jesus. Whilst thus engaged, she 
heard the most beautiful melodies arising 
from the Heart of Jesus to that of His 
Virgin Mother : it was a canticle of filial 
love with which He paid Gertrude's debts. 

One time, as she was praying Jesus to 
present His Mother some good works in 



54 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

her name, thus to repair the little zeal she 
had heretofore manifested for the Blessed 
Virgin's glory, Jesus, the King of Glory, 
arose, and offering Mary His Divine Heart, 
said: "Most loving Mother, behold My 
Heart: I offer it to thee with all that 
divine and eternal love which prompted 
Me to predestinate, create, sanctify and 
choose thee for My Mother. I offer thee 
in this Heart all that filial tenderness, of 
which I gave thee so many tokens on earth, 
when thou didst nourish and bear Me, a 
little child in thy arms. I offer thee, in 
this Heart, that faithful love which kept 
Me near thee all My mortal life, obedient 
to thy wishes, as any other son to his 
mother — Me, the King of Heaven. I offer 
thee especially, that love which on the 
Cross, made Me, in a measure, forget My 
tortures to compassionate thy bitter desola- 
tion, and leave thee in My place, a guardian 
and son. And lastly, behold in My Heart, 
the love which prompted Me to exalt thee 
in thy blessed Assumption, far above the 



The Blessed Virgin Mary. 55 

Saints and Angels, and crown thee Queen 
of earth and Heaven. All this I offer thee, 
dearest Mother, to supply the negligencies 
of my beloved in thy service, and I entreat 
thee at the hour of her death to meet her 
with a mother's welcome." 

" O my Brother," said our Saint on 
another occasion to Jesus Christ, " O my 
Brother, since Thou hast been made Man 
to pay man's debts, deign now, I pray Thee, 
to supply the deficiencies of my indigence, 
and make amends for my negligencies in 
Thy Blessed Mother's service." 

Jesus immediately arose, and advancing 
respectfully towards His Mother, fell upon 
His knees, and saluted her, bowing His 
head with a dignity and grace incompara- 
ble.* 

* Ad quae verba Filius Dei, reverendissinie assur- 
gens et procedens, coram Matre sua genua flexit, et 
motu capitis earn decentissiuie et amicabilissime 
salutavit. 



56 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

V. 

In thus answering Gertrude's prayers, 
our Lord gave her, as we perceive, lessons 
of ever increasing respect and affection for 
our Lady, from which the Saint learned 
how impotent were all man's efforts to 
honor Mary worthily did not the Heart of 
Jesus Itself pay our debts. How indeed 
could man ever sufficiently revere her 
before whom the Son of God deigned to 
bend the knee ? Gertrude, at last, compre- 
hended something of the unsearchable 
depths of those w 7 ords of the Gospel declar- 
ing that Jesus was subject to Mary, and 
henceforth called her the Sovereign, the 
Lady of the Heart of Jesus.* 

* The title of Sovereign of the Heart of Jesus is 
indeed the grandest of the glorious ones bestowed 
upon Mary; for all the treasures of the Divinity 
are contained in the Heart of Jesus, and the Holy 
Trinity Itself, finds therein Its highest Heaven. 
Hence, we cannot call upon her too often by this 
sweet and glorious title, our Lady of the Heart of 
Jesus. Devotion to Mary under this title was 



The Blessed Virgin Mary. 57 

One more incident in Gertrude's life will 
finish the instructions of this chapter, and 
teach our readers an easy means of drawing 
down upon themselves and others our Lady's 
most abundant benedictions : 

As Gertrude was praying one day, the 
Blessed Virgin was shown to her under 
the figure of a dazzling white lily, before 
the Holy Trinity. This lily had three 
leaves, one representing the power of the 
Father, one, the wisdom of the Son, and a 
third, the benignity of the Holy Spirit, 
which each of these Divine Persons had 
communicated to her in such a degree as 
to reproduce in her their vivid resemblance. 

The Blessed Virgin now said to Gertrude : 
"If any one salute me devoutly as the 
white Lily of the Trinity, the brilliant 

established at Paray-le-Monial, the source of devo- 
tion to the Heart of Jesus, and in the year 1846, 
that of the coronation of Pius IX. 

We leave our readers to imagine the incompara- 
ble grandeur to which God was pleased to raise the 
Blessed Virgin's Spouse, St. Joseph, when He 
deigaed to make His Son subject to Him. 



58 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

Rose of Paradise, I will do for him what I 
can through the omnipotence of the Father, 
the wisdom of the Son communicated to me 
for the salvation of man, and the supera- 
bundant mercy which, flowing from the 
benignity of the Holy Spirit, fills my heart; 
and at the hour the soul which shall have 
thus saluted me, quits the body, I will appear 
to it in the splendor of such beauty, as will 
be to it a foretaste of the joys of Paradise." 

From that day, Gertrude took the reso- 
lution of addressing our Lady or reciting 
before her ima^e the following salutation : 

" I salute thee, White Lily of the glorious 
and ever peaceful Trinity, brilliant Rose of 
Paradise. O thou of whom the King of 
Heaven was born, and with whose milk 
He was fed, nourish our souls, I entreat 
thee, with thy divine graces." * 

*Ave, candidum liliura fulgidae semperque tran- 
quillae Trinitatis, Rosaque praefulgida ccelicoe 
amoenitatis, de qua nasci et de cujns lacte pasci 
Rex coelorum voluit : divinis influxionibus animas 
nostras pasce. 



CHAPTEE V. 

\ \TE have seen that the Blessed Virgin 
* * prepared Gertrude's heart for Jesus 
by sowing it thick with violets. From Ger- 
trude's heart indeed, as from that of Jesus, 
arises the perfume of humility, and all her 
words are redolent of it. 

" O God of my life," she writes, " what 
desert places, what rough and rocky roads 
hast Thou not been forced to traverse — I 
mean, what resistance of will had not Thy 
grace to surmount, ere reaching the valley 
of my misery ! 

"Whence comes it, O my God, that 
Thou dost humiliate Thyself thus, even to 
lavishing upon me the gifts of Thy bounty? 
Perhaps Thou wishest to make a trial in me 
of the truth of these words of St. Bernard : 

59 



60 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

' Thou pursuest those who fly from Thee ; 
Thou seekest the face of those who have 
already turned their back upon Thee ; 
Thou implorest, and they continue to 
despise Thee, yet nothing can repel Thee, 
nor diminish Thy love ! ' 

" O superabundant sweetness of my God ! 
I see that my sins, my multiplied crimes, 
grieve more than they irritate Thee ! 
Truly, to bear thus with my miseries, Thou 
must needs have, it seems to me, greater 
treasures of benignity and patience than 
when in those days of Thy life on earth, 
Thou didst so tenderly bear with the com- 
pany of the traitor Judas. 

" Thou knowest, O my God, wherefore I 
am overcome with sorrow and confusion — 
it is because of my infidelity, my negligence, 
my irreverence, my ingratitude for Thy 
benefits. Yes, hadst Thou given me but a 
bit of twine, me so unworthy of anything, 
it should have merited more reverence and 
love than I have returned Thee for all Thy 
graces. 



The Humility of Gertrude s Heart. 61 

"O my God, where is Thy wisdom? 
What strange love has thus made Thee 
forget Thy dignity? What intoxication, 
if I may dare use the expression, has 
possessed Thee, that Thou seekest in the 
depths of its baseness so vile a creature as 
I, to unite Thyself to it ? Ah ! Thou wish- 
est to teach men confidence in Thy love, 
for nowhere couldst Thou find one who 
shows less appreciation of Thy gifts, and 
scandalizes his brethren more." 

Every page of Gertrude's book is filled 
with such expressions; and often, even 
more merciless than this against herself, 
she descends into such abysses of humility 
that we are not able to glance at their 
depths. 

II. 

By act, not less forcibly than word, did 
Gertrude manifest the humility of her 
heart. 

" Abbess of the monastery for forty 
years," writes one of her companions, " she 



62 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

was most faithful iu her attentions to the 
infirm, recreating with them as a mother 
with her children, and never hesitating to 
perform the lowest and most menial offices 
for them. She was first to sweep the house ; 
and for a long time, this part of the manual 
work she did entirely, until the example of 
her humility had vanquished the repug- 
nance of the Sisters to share it." 

The author of the first book of the 
Tasinuationts furnishes yet more decisive 
proofs of Gertrude's humility in the follow- 
ing : " She whom the wisest consulted, she 
so versed in the knowledge of Scripture, 
consulted the opinion of others in all things, 
being ever ready to follow or suspend, or 
abandon her own desires and plans accord- 
ing to the approval or disapproval of those 
to whom she submitted them. It was but 
seldom indeed she judged it her duty to 
prefer her own opinion to that of others, 
and she acted in such cases very reluc- 
tantly. 

" Gertrude did not conceal the graces she 



The Humility of Gertrude's Heart 63 

received from God ; on the contrary, as we 
have already seen, she loved to communi- 
cate them not only to the directors of her 
soul, but to others, and this from a princi- 
ple of the purest humility. Fully pene- 
trated with the sentiment of her utter 
unworthiness of such favors, she did not 
doubt that they were lavished upon her 
only as precious seeds to be sown in better 
soil. It was dishonoring these gifts of God, 
she thought, to leave them buried in the 
mire of her own heart, and they would not 
begin to fructify for their Master until they 
were drawn forth, and deposited in another 
more worthy of receiving them." 

Hence, the zeal with which she wrote 
and dictated the last four books of the 
Insinuationes and other works not now 
extant. At first, natural instinct and a 
humility not uncommon, made her shrink 
from it, but a more perfect humility tri- 
umphed, and she pursued these labors with 
a view solely to God's honor and glory, and 
her neighbor's salvation. Having finished 



64 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

these books, she would often say: "If, after 
death, I am cast into hell for my sins, there 
will remain for me one consolation — the 
thought that others, reading my writings, 
will praise God, and His graces, sterile in 
me, will bring forth in them, blessed fruits 
of immortality " — words embalmed in the 
perfume of humility and charity. 

One of the industries of Gertrude's hu- 
mility was not to struggle directly against 
the imaginations of pride or vanity. Did 
such thoughts strive to penetrate her medi- 
tations or mingle with her good works, she 
would immediately say to herself: " Yes, it 
is true that, in addition to all my other 
miseries and defects, I must also bewail 
pride, yet one consolation remains to me: 
perhaps others in witnessing my good 
actions will be led to imitate them, with- 
out imitating my pride, and thus God will 
be glorified and gather at least this fruit 
from my sterility," 



The Humility of Gertrude's Heart 65 

III. 

Gertrude's humility was not the sudden 
growth of a day ; the generous virgin had 
acquired this virtue only at the cost of daily 
struggles, guided and sustained therein by 
the lessons of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus left Gertrude some spiritual in- 
firmities as the safeguard of her humility. 

A pious woman, yielding to Gertrude's 
entreaties, had been praying for her some 
time, when one day, our Lord said to her : 
" These defects over which My Beloved 
grieves are very profitable to her. I daily 
fill her soul with such an abundance of 
graces, that, to preserve her from the attacks 
of vanity (for she is human), I must needs 
conceal some of them from her under the 
cloud of these trifling defects. Manure 
fertilizes the earth : the soul's consciousness 
of her failings evokes acknowledgment, and 
every time she thus humbles herself for 
them, I bestow upon her a new grace which 
destroys them; little by little, I change 
5 



66 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

them into virtues, until the soul, one day, 
finds herself in an atmosphere of unclouded 
light." 

Sometimes, Jesus would deprive Gertrude 
of these favors. His reasons for this He 
made known to her as follows: "It is for 
the sanctification of thy soul, I elevate thee 
by contemplation, to the knowledge of My 
divine secret ; and in like manner, for thy 
salvation, do I exclude thee from them. 
When elevating, I wish to teach thee, 
that with the assistance of My grace, thou 
canst comprehend and accomplish great 
things ; and abasing thee, the lesson to be 
derived therefrom is thy nothingness apart 
from Me." 

Jesus showed Gertrude how He alone, as 
St. Paul tells us, is all sufficient — that we 
must remain in Him and be clothed with 
Him if we wish to please God. 

Holding His Heart in His hands one 
day, He presented it to Gertrude, saying : 
" Behold, My Heart, that harmonious In- 
strument whose sweet tones ravish the Holy 



The Humility of Gertrude's Heart 67 

Trinity. I give It to thee that, like a 
faithful, zealous servant obedient to thy 
commands, It may supply thy deficiencies. 
Make use of It, and all thy works will 
chacm God's ear." 

Gertrude hesitated, but Jesus triumphed 
over her fears, enlightening her humility 
by the following simile : 

"A man/' said He, " is called upon to 
sing before an honored assembly, but his- 
voice is so weak and false that it pains one 
to hear it. Thou art near him, thou whose 
voice is clear, flexible, and sweet. Thou of- 
ferest either to lend him thy voice (which 
thou canst do) or sing in his place. Wouldst 
thou not feel indignant if he refused thy 
generous offer ? And thus is it with thee 
and Me. I know thy poverty, thy defi- 
ciencies, and My Heart ardently desires to 
supply them — this were Its greatest joy. 
It asks only of thee that thou give thy 
consent, if not in words, at least, by a sign." 

To make Gertrude understand that God 
finds not in us, but in Himself, the impulses 



68 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

of His bounty, Jesus gave her a new lesson 
on this important truth in which humility 
strikes its deepest roots : 

One day, enlightened from above, Ger- 
trude discovered in her soul some defects 
hitherto unperceived. " Lord, Lord," she 
exclaimed, horrified at the sight of her 
spiritual deformities, a how could I ever 
have pleased Thee with so many stains on 
my soul ? and how many more may there 
not be upon it which none but Thine All 
Seeing Eye can discern ! " Immediately 
she heard these words: "Love makes com- 
placency," which she understood thus — 
"Love, even among men, so governs the 
heart as to render attractive and pleasing 
the object beloved, though it be unsightly 
and deformed — it sometimes carries one to 
the point of wishing to share these defects, 
as if they were not blemishes but the oppo- 
site. Now God is love itself, and in this 
lies the secret of His loving us, despite our 
spiritual deformities." 

Jesus also gave Gertrude another shield 



The Humility of Gertrude's Heart 69 

against the assaults of pride, by telling her 
the reason of the very especial favors He 
seemed to reserve for her : 

" It was a feast-day," writes our Saint ; 
" not being able to communicate on account 
of sickness, I refreshed my soul by calling 
to mind the benefits of my God. The con- 
templation of the many and great graces 
I had received, made me fear lest the wind 
of pride, passing over my soul, should dry 
up the dews of mercy ; and I begged our 
Lord to give me some especial antidote 
against vanity, and here is the lesson of 
His paternal goodness : 

" ' In a large family of children, strong, 
healthy, and handsome, will always be 
found one lacking these qualities — delicate, 
homely, and otherwise unattractive perhaps. 
Is not this the child towards whom the 
father's heart goes out with most tenderness 
and compassion, which he expresses in little 
presents and caresses denied the others ? ' 

" Jesus also said to me, 'As long as thou 
continuest to consider thyself the most im- 



70 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

perfect, so long will I inundate thy soul 
with the waves of My divine tenderness.' " 



IV. 

Jesus gave Gertrude still other lessons on 
this same subject — humility. She learned 
from Him that pride closes the doors of the 
soul against grace, whilst humility opens 
them and introduces it therein. 

She was once praying for a person w^ho 
greatly desired to taste divine consolations. 
Jesus appeared to her and said : " This soul 
has no one to blame but herself that the 
sweetness of My grace cannot reach her — 
she is too full of herself, attached to her 
own ideas, obstinate in her judgments. The 
effect of such pride in the soul is to paralyze 
that faculty which inhales the perfume of 
divine love. Vainly indeed were sweet odors 
exhaled near a person, whose nostrils were so 
obstructed that he could not perceive them." 

Again, as she was praying for another 
who had been recommended to her, both 



The Humility of Gertrude's Heart. 71 

directly and indirectly with the deepest 
humility, she saw Jesus incline towards 
that soul, with ineffable condescension, 
inundate it with celestial splendor, and fill 
it with the graces it had hoped to obtain 
through Gertrude's intercession. At the 
same time, He said to our Saint: " Humil- 
ity is so dear to Me, that when a soul 
humbly recommends itself to the prayers 
of another, hoping to obtain My grace 
through such intercession, I will never 
fail to grant its desires, even though the 
person asked to pray may never have done 
so." 

Gertrude was once so overcome at the 
consideration of the magnitude and num- 
ber of her sins (for such was the jricture 
of them upon her delicate conscience) that 
me wished to flee the light and lose herself 
in an abyss of darkness. But whilst thus 
humbliug herself, she saw Jesus descending 
towards her with such demonstrations of 
love that the Angels and Saints were filled 
with admiration. And Jesus, as if answer- 



72 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

ing their astonishment, said : " I can but 
follow her; her humility has captivated 
My Heart and drawn It to her by bonds 
I cannot break." 

But perhaps the most efficacious of all 
the lessons on humility Jesus gave Ger- 
trude, was to be found in the divine deli- 
cacy with which He treated her. Often 
He seemed blind to those defects His 
Spouse bewailed, and the more her noble 
heart deplored them, the greater His ap- 
parent ignorance of them. The following 
incident will reveal the exceeding delicacy 
and sweetness of the love of Jesus in His 
dealings with Gertrude : 

"O my Master," exclaimed our Saint on 
one occasion, " Thou dost work no greater 
miracle than this — that the earth supports 
me — me, an unworthy sinner!" "Yes," 
replied Jesus immediately; " cheerfully in- 
deed should earth offer to bear thy footsteps, 
since Heaven itself with inexpressible im- 
patience, awaits the happy hour when thou 
wilt tread its precincts ! " 



CHAPTER VL 

TESUS is as kind and gentle as He is 
^ humble — says the Apostle of the Gen- 
tiles, "the goodness and kindness of God 
our Saviour appeared."* Hence, Ger- 
trude's heart to please Jesus, must repro- 
duce the benignity that filled His own. 

The lessons of this gentle Master warned 
her against the shoals of anger, irritation 
and rancor ; and sinners' iniquities, or the 
imperfections of the just, viewed in the 
light of these divine instructions, excited 
not indignation, but pity. She knew how 
to reprove without harshness, and over- 
flowing with that charity imbibed from 
the Heart of Jesus, she was disposed to do 

*Benignitas et humanitas apparuit Salvatoris 
nostri Dei. (Tit. Ill, 4). 

73 



74 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

or suffer anything that could aid or console 
her neighbor. 

As she was praying one day for some 
wretches who had not only already heaped 
injuries upon the Community, but threat- 
ened still more, our Lord appeared to her. 
Showing her His Arm painfully twisted 
and bent, He said : " Consider what excru- 
ciating pain anyone would cause Me, who 
should strike heavy and repeated blows 
upon this Arm. And yet this is just what 
they do who breathe out resentment and 
fary against the people who persecute thee, 
forgetful of the fact that these wretches im- 
periling their souls thus, are still members 
of My Body. They, on the contrary, who 
pray Me to touch thy persecutors' hearts 
and convert them, who gently exhort them 
to repair their wrongs, are to Me, like skil- 
ful physicians, who pouring over My Arm 
with gentle hand, a healing oil, gradually 
and painlessly bring back the muscles to 
their right position." * 

*The reader mus:t ever bear in mind that, as St. 



The Benignity of Gertrude's Heart 75 

Surprised at this excess of divine benig- 
nity, Gertrude replied : " Dear Lord, how 
canst Thou call such unworthy people Thy 
Arm?" "I call them thus in all truth, 
because they are part of the Body of the 
Church, of which I am the honored Head." 
" But are they not cut off from the Church, 
by solemn excommunication, for their law- 
lessness?" " Yes, it is true they are excom- 
municated; but as they may yet receive the 
Church's absolution should they repent, I 
consider this a bond uniting them to Me, 
and the interest of their souls causes Me 
inexpressible solicitude. Oh! how ardently 
I desire their conversion ! " 

Gertrude begged Jesus to protect the 
convent from the evils with which these 
wretches threatened it. " I will do so," 
replied our Lord, " if, in humility of heart, 

Paul says, the Church is the Mystical Body of Jesus 
Christ, and we, the members. Jesus speaks of the 
Wounds of nis Mystical Body. It was in this 
same sense, He could say to St. Paul himself: 
" Why persecutest thou Me ? " when Saul was 
1 breathing out slaughter ' against the Christians. 



76 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

thou acknowledge that these chastisements 
of My paternal bounty, are merited ; if, on 
the contrary, thy pride fill thee with wrath 
against these unhappy creatures, by a just 
judgment, I will allow them to prevail and 
do thee still greater injury." 

Whilst Gertrude was once praying for a 
very imperfect soul, she beheld Jesus, the 
right side of His Body arrayed in royal 
vestments, whilst the left exposed to view 
w 7 as full of ulcers. It was made known to 
her that the former represented souls ad- 
vanced in virtue; the latter, those who 
w T ere still very imperfect — also, that to pray 
for the former is to clothe Jesus in costly 
apparel; whilst to criticise the imperfect, 
or harshly reproach them for their faults, 
their spiritual miseries, is furiously to tear 
open the ulcers of Jesus Christ. 

Such was the interpretation our Lord 
gave His Spouse of this vision, saying 
moreover: "Would to God my friends 
would strive to heal the wounds of My 
Church which are Mine own, by bearing 



The Benignity of Gertrude's Heart 77 

with and healing the defects of the imper- 
fect. Sores should be handled very care- 
fully ; likewise, should one treat gently the 
soul whose defects it hopes to cure, having 
recourse to severity, only when assured 
that no other means will effect the desired 
reformation." 



II. 



" How many," continued Jesus, " have 
no compassion for My wounds! Seeing 
their, neighbors' faults, they immediately 
take advantage of it to bring them into 
contempt, instead of kindly giving a salu- 
tary word of correction, afraid lest the latter 
course might expose themselves to disagree- 
ables, or be too much trouble; and their 
excuse for this neglect of duty is that of 
Cain: 'Am I my brother's keeper?' These 
are they who spread an ointment over My 
ulcers that inflames them and breeds worms 
in them. A word in season, perhaps, had 
corrected their brother's faults ; whilst ill- 



78 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

timed silence and oblivion of them is often 
nourishing food to their growth. 

"Others, indeed, inform the Superiors of 
their brethren's defects, but they are so 
indignant that the correction is much less 
grave than they expected, that they take 
the resolution of never again making known 
these matters to Superiors who apparently 
deem them so trifling. At the same time, 
they sit in judgment, harsh judgment upon 
the unhappy ones, the cure of whose spirit- 
ual infirmities they profess to have at heart, 
and never address them one kind word 
calculated to direct their steps aright. 
These also spread an ointment upon My 
sores, but under it is concealed their hypo- 
critical hand, holding a sharp-edged trident 
which rends and tears them. 

" Others again, who could correct their 
neighbor, neglect it, not from malice, but 
indifference ; and these cause me the same 
pain as if passing near Me, they crushed 
My feet under their own. 

" Some strive to correct, but in doing so, 



The Benignity of Gertrude s Heart 79 

neglect three very important rules of effica- 
cious correction — first, that he who corrects, 
prepare himself for it by serenity of counte- 
nance, charity in words, and delicacy of 
action; secondly, that he observe secrecy 
regarding the faults committed, or, reveal 
them only to those w T ho should know them, 
either to aid in the correction, or withdraw 
from the influence of bad example; thirdly, 
that he act promptly when the favorable 
moment for correction arrives, laying aside 
all human respect, all timidity, and having 
in view solely God's glory and the salvation 
of souls. 

" One must know how to close his eyes 
io light failings. How often does it not 
happen that little children dispute among 
themselves when playing ? A certain ani- 
mation seems to fire every one of them, but 
it is not wrath ; and the good father who 
witnesses their spirited contentions will 
most frequently be blind to them. Yet his 
conduct would change should one of the 
children get angry and threaten, or even 



80 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

strike another. And thus do I daily dis- 
simulate, in regard to the trifling conten- 
tions of my children — I, the Father of 
Mercies ; and, nevertheless, I prefer peace, 
perfect harmony." 

III. 

All who knew Gertrude attest that her 
conduct was regulated upon these lessons 
of Jesus Christ, and that the most hardened 
hearts yielded to her influence, her kind- 
ness, according to the Evangelic Words, 
gaining an absolute empire over wills the 
most rebellious.* 

Gentle and affectionate towards the 
wicked, Gertrude lavished upon her com- 
panions a love truly maternal; and our 

* Gertrude never saw suffering without being 
touched by it ; the sight of a wounded bird, or a 
beast of burden struggling under a load beyond its 
strength, always appealed to her heart, and when 
unable to assist them in any way herself, she had 
recourse to God, begging that He would aid His 
poor creatures. 



The Benignity of Gertrude's Heart 81 

Lord, to excite her zeal for charity, made 
known to her. by the following incident, 
the value of any work, no matter how in- 
significant, if inspired by fraternal charity: 

In spite of her infirmities, Gertrude had 
arisen one day to recite Matins, and had 
already finished one Nocturn, when another 
sick Sister took a place near her. Our Saint 
offered to begin again, and, with great devo- 
tion repeated what she had already recited. 
Mass followed, and during it, Gertrude sud- 
denly saw herself arrayed in a mantle glit- 
tering with diamonds. Jesus had recom- 
pensed her charity for the sick religious, 
and the mantle had as many diamonds as 
the Nocturn contained words. 

The sight of this exterior decoration 
revived in Gertrude's heart the sentiment 
of her un worthiness; she bethought herself 
of several faults she had not been able to 
make known to the confessor, then distant 
from the monastery; and grieved at not 
having it in her power to accuse herself of 
them before receiving Holy Communion. 
6 



82 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

" Why," said Jesus, " dost thou worry so 
over these faults, when thou art enveloped 
in this rich mantle of charity ? Dost thou 
not know that charity effaces all thy sins?" 
"And have not these faults left their stains 
upon my soul?" "No," was our Lord's 
answer, " charity has not only effaced the 
faults, but also their stains; not so thor- 
oughly does the sun penetrate and illumine 
crystal, as charity the soul, making it re- 
splendent with the treasures of new merits." 



CHAPTEE Vn. 

IIq xtf totality !f$mt 

O AID a holy old man to whom Gertrude 
^ manifested all the secrets of her soul: 
"I have never known any one more a 
stranger than Gertrude to aught that might 
wound chastity or obscure its brightness.' y 



Gertrude wished to please the most inno- 
cent Heart of Jesus ; and she took great 
pains to preserve the lily of her virginity 
in all its whiteness and fragrance. Those 
who were best acquainted with her, attest 
that she never looked upon a man's face, so 
that by the countenance alone she could 
never have recognized even those who 
visited her most frequently. 

83 



84 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

Though passionately fond of reading the 
Scriptures, if she came upon a line, or a 
word, that seemed not written for her, she 
v/ould instantly turn away her eyes. 

To the delicate questions often addressed 
her by souls tormented by importunate 
temptations, Gertrude would reply with 
wisdom and charity; but it was easy to 
see that she had rather have been pierced 
by a sword, than add one useless word to 
these necessary conversations. 



II. 



It was of a purity whose roots were far- 
reaching and deep that Gertrude showed 
herself jealous, for God is jealous of it — 
that which strives to destroy in the heart 
the germs of its least faults — that which 
keeps the heart detached from all purely 
natural friendship, all material possessions, 
all useless solicitude, permitting it to seek 
in everything but God alone. The follow- 
ing will enable us to understand more 



The Purity of Gertrude's Heart 85 

clearly this perfect purity of Gertrude's 
heart : 

She detested as a mortal poison all 
friendships not founded upon charity or 
thoroughly imbued with it. A word, a sign 
of affection, when she perceived the purely 
human tenderness inspiring it became in- 
supportable to her. Few could appreciate 
like herself the sweetness of friendship ; and 
her continual tribulations and trials urged 
her to those outpourings of the heart which 
are so great a relief; yet she preferred the 
renunciation of such consolations, rather 
than be the object of a friendship cemented 
by nature only, or the occasion of one 
affectionate word not ennobled by charity. 
Kind and charitable to all, she was very 
careful to address none in words of unusual 
tenderness, or give them too vivid marks 
of affection, for fear of awakening in their 
hearts a sentiment of passionate friendship 
for her. 

Still less did Gertrude attach herself to 
those innumerable objects cupidity pursues, 



86 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

and whose possession encuaining the heart 
by a thousand bonds, arrests its flight , 
towards God. The faithful Spouse of Jesus 
wished nothing in her cell but what was 
indispensable. As soon as an object ceased 
to be necessary, she would not keep it a day 
longer, but obtaining permission, she gave 
it to another, without the slightest regard for 
her own natural sympathies or aversions. 

So great was her delicacy of conscience, 
alarmed at the shadow of evil, so great the 
care she took to preserve her heart from 
sin and the solicitude with which she puri- 
fied it from even the least stains, that Jesus 
Himself had often to console His Spouse, by 
showing her that these faults she deplored 
became for Him an occasion of joy. 

Examining her conscience one sleepless 
night, she reproached herself bitterly for 
the habit she had contracted of saying these 
two words: God knows — Deus scit; and 
she conjured our Lord to pardon the past, 
and help her correct the future. "Ah! 
then," said Jesus, "wilt thou deprive Me 



The Purity of Gertrude's Heart. 87 

of the pleasure thou givest Me, every time 
that falling into this fault thou dost humble 
thyself, and make a resolution of amend- 
ment ? Is not a king pleased when he sees 
one of his soldiers struggling bravely against 
the enemies of the kingdom ? Such is My 
satisfaction in this ; and thou dost also in- 
crease thy merits." 

But at the same time that His love 
encouraged and consoled her, Jesus ex- 
cited her by a salutary fear to nourish in 
her heart horror for the least faults. 

One day, whilst reciting the Canonical 
Hours, Gertrude heard the demon repeat 
after her in a hurried, excited manner a 
verse of a Psalm, and then say : " It is all 
pure loss indeed that your Creator, your 
Saviour and Beloved has given you organs 
so delicate that you can both speak rapidly 
and clearly articulate the words ; for in one 
Psalm alone, you have mispronounced so 
many words, syllables, letters." " I under- 
stood from this," said Gertrude, " with what 
rigor the demon will accuse, at God's tri- 



88 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

burial, those who precipitately recite the 
Divine Office." 

"Alas ! " said Gertrude one day, to Jesus 
Christ, "although my soul through Thy 
grace, appears to me now purified from its 
stains, I have reason to fear that it will 
soon be profaned by new ones. O dearest 
of Masters, teach me how I can quickly 
wash away my daily transgressions." "I 
do not wish thee ever to leave these stains 
on thy soul," replied our Lord, " and I will 
teach thee how to efface them. Hasten as 
soon as thou perceivest them, to address 
Me with all humility and devotion in the 
words of the Psalm, Miserere me, Deris, 
secundum mag nam tuam, or, better per- 
haps, in the following invocation : ' O my 
Only Salvation, Jesus Christ, blot out all 
my sins by Thy holy death.' M 

III. 

A stranger to sin, free from all dis- 
orderly affection for creatures, Gertrude's 



The Purity of Gertrude's Heart. 89 

heart sought God alone and found Him 
everywhere. To please Jesus in all things 
was the one aim of her life. 

Our Lord Himself made this known to 
Saint Mechtilde by the following vision. 
He appeared to her seated upon an elevated 
throne, before which Gertrude came and 
went in various directions, but always with 
her face fixed upon His. " See," said He, 
" the life of Gertrude. She walks ever in 
My presence, never losing sight of Me for 
an instant ; she has but one desire, that of 
knowing the good pleasure of My Heart, 
which when learned, she executes with 
incredible eagerness. Scarcely has she 
accomplished one of Its behests ere she 
applies to Me for others, which are exe- 
cuted with like celerity. And thus her 
whole life is devoted to My honor and 
glory." " But," asked Mechtilde, " how is 
it with gaze ever fixed on Thee, she sees 
so well all the faults and failings of the 
Sisters under her charge, and why does 
she attach so much importance to their 



90 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

least defects ? " " Having a horror of 
seeing the least stains on her own soul, 
neither can she suffer them in the souls 
of those who are dear to her," replied our 
Lord. 

Gertrude lived for Jesus Christ alone, 
and her fidelity lay at His feet every act 
of her life, with a simplicity we can but 
admire. If she preferred the books of her 
cell, the table upon which she wrote, it was 
because they served her better than any- 
thing else in making Jesus Christ know^n 
and loved. She even had an especial fond- 
ness for a certain book, after a Sister once 
said to her, " This book has done my soul 
much good." 

Indeed, forgetting herself to see only 
Jesus therein, she considered as done for 
Him any kindness to herself, His Spouse, 
and even rejoiced at some little expense 
with which her infirmities had charged the 
monastery. It was to Him she referred the 
nourishment, rest, sleep, her body demanded. 
These words of His in the Gospel : " What- 



The Purity of Gertrude's Heart. 91 

soever ye do to the least of these, is done 
to Myself," were to her an ever-burning 
beacon. One little incident alone which 
we give below, will prove how agreeable 
to Jesus Christ was this uprightness, this 
simplicity of Gertrude's heart : 

Holy meditations had banished sleep 
from her eyes. Overcome by weariness 
and feeling very faint, Gertrude ate, in 
the middle of the night, a bunch of grapes, 
proposing to herself in so doing, the lauda- 
ble intention of refreshing Jesus Christ 
thereby. " Now," said our Lord to her, 
"do I imbibe from thy heart a delicious 
beverage, whose sweetness compensates Me 
for the bitterness of the vinegar and gall, 
that My love of thee made Me taste on 
Calvary." 

Gertrude had thrown the grape-skins 
^nd seeds upon the floor of her cell. She 
saw the demon attempt to pick up one of 
the skins, so as to produce it against her, 
at the tribunal of God, as a witness that 
she had broken the rule by eating before 



92 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

Matins. But no sooner had lie touched it, 
than she saw that it burnt his fingers, and 
he fled precipitately, uttering most fright- 
ful cries. Gertrude also noticed that in 
fleeing he was careful to avoid the burning 
skins and seeds. 

IV. 

Jesus encouraged Gertrude's fidelity by 
other lessons of charity. He told her of 
the jealousy of His love for her. 

Grieved one day by the ingratitude and 
contempt with which a soul requited all 
her efforts to save it, she had recourse to 
Jesus. "It is I," said our amiable Lord, 
" Who have permitted thee to be thus 
afflicted. I desire that thou find neither 
consolation nor unalloyed joy in thy friends, 
that thus repelled, thou art constrained to 
come to Me and remain near Me. When 
a mother so loves a little child, that she 
longs to have it ever beside her, if it 
attempts to stray off to mingle in the sports 
of other children, does she not strive to 



The Purity of Gertrudes Heart. 93 

recall it by speaking of apparitions or 
monsters it may meet, or even, perhaps, 
by placing in its way something that will 
frighten it? And thus do I act with thee, 

so as to keep thee ever near Me." 

These confidences of the love of Jesus did 
not permit Gertrude to take pleasure in 
vain conversations. On the contrary, these 
wearied her, and just as soon as charity 
allowed her to withdraw, she would hasten 
to be more closely united to Jesus, either 
in solitude or meditation. Kneeling before 
a crucifix, she would address Him thus : 
" Master, behold me at Thy Feet. The 
conversation of creatures is weariness to 
my soul, which takes no pleasure but in 
Thy company. I turn away from them 
and come to Thee, Sovereign Good, 
Sole Joy of my heart/"' 

Then, affectionately kissing on her cruci- 
fix the Five Wounds of Jesus, she would 
say at each: "I salute Thee, Jesus, Spouse 
ornamented with wounds as with flowers; 
I salute and embrace Thee, with a love in 



94 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

which all other loves are united ; with the 
complacency of Thy Divinity itself, I kiss 
Thy Wound of love." 

Gertrude had been practising this pious 
exercise a long time, when one day our 
Lord said to her : " Every time thou actest 
thus, I ponder in My Heart the five-fold 
return I will make thee in Heaven for the 
joy thou givest Me during thy sojourn on 
earth." 

Simplicity and purity of intention are 
but aspects of, or acts springing from, 
purity of heart, which, when perfect, pro- 
duces liberty. A friend of our Saint once 
asked Jesus Christ, at meditation : " What 
disposition of Gertrude's soul is it that 
pleases Thee most?" "Her liberty of 
heart," answered Jesus. " She permits her 
heart to be attached to nothing that may 
turn it aside from Me ; hence, the progress 
she makes in the paths of sanctity. It is 
this liberty of heart which daily renders 
perfect her charity." 



CHAPTER YIIL 

Wip ^unfitting Jjattn rf Gterlntirjfs 



A LL the Saints have loved Jesus Christ : 
-*--*- love of Jesus Christ is the perfection 
of sanctity : but this love presents different 
characteristics in the hearts of different 
Saints. The most salient feature in Ger- 
trude's was her confidence. More fully 
than any other does she seem to have 
understood these words of Jesus: "Be of 
good heart, It is I, fear ye not." 

I. 

"All that I have received," she used 
to say. " I owe to my confidence in the 

gratuitous bounty of my God." Our Lord 
Himself, once reproaching a holv soul for 

°95 



96 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

the timidity of her petitions, said : " Why 
art thou not like My beloved Gertrude? 
There is nothing she does not hope for 
from My bounty, and there is nothing 
My bounty will ever refuse her." 

In all things she had recourse to Jesus 
as a child to its mother, nothing, in her 
eyes, being too trivial to be recommended 
to Him. On one occasion, having lost a 
needle in a pile of straw, she besought 
Him to find it for her. " O dear Jesus," 
said she, " vainly, indeed, would I search 
for this needle ; it were lost time ; please 
get it for me Thyself." Extending one 
hand, and turning away her head, she 
immediately found the needle between her 
fingers. 

She called Jesus by titles the most affec- 
tionate, and His brotherly Heart encour- 
aged this confidence so dear to It. "I 
salute Thee, most loving Lord," said Ger- 
trude to Jesus one day, " I who am but a 
vile little creature." "And I," immediately 
replied Jesus, "salute thee, My beloved 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart. 97 

Spouse." Our Lord made her understand, 
on this occasion, that His Heart was most 
responsive to such tender epithets as Be- 
loved, sweetest Jesus, and others of similar 
nature when dictated by piety and devotion. 
Her confidence in Jesus banished all fear 
of death. One day, climbing up a rough 
place, Gertrude fell. On arising, she said, 
gaily : " O what a happiness, dear Jesus, 
had this fall but brought me to Thee ! " 
" What! " exclaimed in astonishment those 
who were with her, "would you not be 
afraid to die without the Last Sacraments? " 
" I desire with all my heart to receive them," 
was her answer, " but I prefer to the Sacra- 
ments, Providence and my Master's Will. 
Moreover, whether I die suddenly or other- 
wise, I feel confident that His mercy will 
never be wanting." 



II. 



The contemporary author of Gertrude's 
life mentions especially as one of her most 

7 



98 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

admirable acts of confidence in Jesus Christ, 
the frequency of her Communions, and the 
care she took to banish all exaggerated fears 
and false ideas of respect that might have 
kept her from the Eucharistic Table. No- 
thing she heard or read about the risk of 
making bad Communions, could ever have 
sufficient weight with her to make her 
forego even one. Such books or discourses, 
on the contrary, only animated her confi- 
dence in the infinite goodness of our Lord, 
and she would go to Communion without 
fear, endeavoring to inspire others with thk 
same unwavering confidence. 

" Humility," she would say to them, 
" should force you to communicate. What 
indeed were your longest, most assiduous 
preparations for Communion when you 
think of the grandeur of this Gift of Jesus 
Christ, wholly gratuitous? Even your 
greatest efforts would be but as a drop of 
water compared to the ocean. Of course, 
make all preparation in your power, but if 
it seem to you insufficient, walk fearlessly 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart 99 

to the Holy Table, relying upon the bounty 
of Jesus." 

Often Gertrude used her authority as 
Superior to lead to the Holy Table the 
Sisters who were too scrupulous. 

One day, as she was quite worried on 
this account, thinking she had exceeded 
her limits and been wanting in discretion, 
our Lord said to her : " Fear not ; thou 
hast done well. For thy consolation and 
guidance in future, I promise thee that, 
never shall thy counsels or orders be the 
occasion of an unworthy Communion. I 
will extend a loving welcome to all souls 
whom thou shalt bring to Me." 

We meet throughout Gertrude's writings 
similar anecdotes, showing how agreeable to 
Jesus was her confidence. Let us recount 
a few of them. The reader will find therein 
abundant justification of the doctrine of the 
Saints and great theologians, which teaches 
that Communion may be allowed all Chris- 
tians in a state of grace ; that exemption 
from mortal sin suffices to render the Com- 



100 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

munion profitable ; and humility and con- 
fidence supply the place of dispositions 
apparently more perfect — in a word, that 
the Holy Communion is the remedy of 
sinners, the nourishment of the weak, not 
the recompense of the Saints.* 

Once when about to communicate, Ger- 
trude said to Jesus, " Lord, what wilt Thou 
give me ? " "I will give thee Myself, as I 
did to My Mother," was the answer. " Yes- 

*Some directors oppose to souls who would com- 
municate frequently, the following words of St. 
Francis de Sales: "To communicate every eight 
days, one should be free from mortal sin, likewise, 
all affection to venial sin, and have a great desire 
of communicating." These sentiments of St. Fran- 
cis de Sales, which he, by a common error of his 
times, attributed to St. Augustine, are in reality, 
taken from the writings of Gennadius. A Saint, 
Alphonsus Liguori, whose authority, more espe- 
cially on such points as these, is no less weighty 
than that of the Bishop of Geneva, writes as fol- 
lows, about the end of the last century : "If the 
Blessed Francis de Sales, who advocated frequent 
Communion, had known that the above quoted pas- 
sage was to be attributable not to St. Augustine, but 
to Gennadius, his (St. Augustine's) adversary, he 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart 101 

terday the Sisters received Thee with me ; 
to-day, they do not. Shall my merits or 
recompense thereby be greater than theirs? " 
she asked. " In the world/' answered Jesus, 
"the governor who is twice elected to his 
high office, takes precedence of him who 
occupies it but once; and shall not then 
one be more glorious in Heaven, the 
oftener he shall have received Me upon 
earth?'' "Oh!" exclaimed Gertrude, " what 

would, no doubt, have given it slight consideration." 
— St. Thomas of Aquin also attributed this same text 
to St. Augustine, but he (St. Thomas) excludes from 
the Holy Table only such as carry to it mortal sin 
already committed, or the will to commit a mortal 
sin ; for it is thus he interprets the words of Gen- 
nadius : Si mens in affectu peccandi non sit. — Here 
are the words of St. Thomas (in 1 ad Cor. 2, lect. 7) : 
" Tertio modo dicitur aliquis indignus, ex eo quod 
cum voluntate peccandi mortaliter accedit ad 
Eucharistiam : inde y in libro de Dog-mat. Eccles. 
dicitur: Si mens in affectu peccandi non sit." 

How, moreover, the above quoted words of St. 
Francis de Sales may be reconciled with the doc- 
trine universally admitted, St. Thomas formulates 
in these terms : "The presence of venial sins in the 



102 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

then will be the glory of priests, since they 
communicate every day ! " " Their glory 
is great indeed," answered Jesus, " if they 
communicate worthily. The Holy Com- 
munion, though always conferring glory, 
does not always, however, produce sensible 
joy. He who communicates from habit 
does not taste the sweetness of the Eucha- 
rist ; whilst he who prepares his heart for 
Its reception by exercises of piety and 

soul is an obstacle to the impressions of sensible 
devotion which the Sacrament ordinarily produces; 
but it does not prevent the increase of sanctifying 
grace or charity, which is the principal fruit of the 
Sacrament. " 

In fine, directors are always careful to bear in 
mind that frequent falls into certain mortal sins 
are oftenest arrested, or diminished in their vio- 
lence, only by very frequent Communions — such 
is the opinion, among others, of St. Ligouri, Cardi- 
nal Tolet and Cardinal de Lugo, three theologians 
of the first order. 

Says Blessed Albert le Grand, it is not more 
natural for water to quench thirst, than it is for 
the Sacrament of the Altar to moderate the ardor 
of concupiscence. 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart. 103 

devotion, tastes of this sweetness in propor- 
tion to his dispositions. In fine, he who 
approaches Me with fear and reverence, is 
less eagerly welcomed than he who comes 
to Me from love." 

" Thou hast so often given me Thy Divine 
Heart, O my Beloved, what shall I gain in 
receiving Thee to-day, once more ? " Thus 
spoke Gertrude after one of her Commu- 
nions. Jesus answered: "Catholic Faith 
teaches that in communicating but once, 
the Christian receives Me, for his salvation, 
with all My goods — that is, with the united 
treasures of My Divinity and Humanity; 
but he does not appropriate the abundance 
of these treasures except by repeated Com- 
munions. At each new Communion, I in- 
crease, I multiply the riches which are to 
make his happiness in Heaven. " 

Among the directors of the monastery, 
was one whose sentiments on the subject 
of Communion were inspired more by zeal 
for justice than the spirit of mercy. And 
according to his ideas, some of the Sisters 



104 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

had not the requisite devotion for frequent 
Communion, or did not sufficiently prepare 
themselves for It. Expressing himself thus 
in a public instruction, he soon succeeded in 
breaking down the confidence of many of 
the Religious. Gertrude, greatly afflicted 
at this, and praying one day for the aus- 
tere director, asked Jesus : " Lord, what dost 
Thou think of his conduct ? " And our Lord 
answered : 

" My delights are to be with the children 
of men. To satisfy My love I instituted 
this Sacrament. I remain thus with them 
until the end of the world, and I desire that 
they receive Me frequently. If then, any 
one, either by public instruction or private 
counsel, keep from the Holy Table a soul not 
in mortal sin, he hinders or interrupts the 
delights of My Heart. Did a young prince 
take great pleasure in talking to or recre- 
ating with children of an humble condition, 
would he not be vexed and irritated, were 
his preceptor harshly to reprove him and 
drive the children off, under the plea that 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart 105 

it was unbecoming the dignity of a prince 
to indulge in such sports and associate with 
his inferiors/' 

"Lord," continued our Saint, "if the 
person of whom we have been talking were 
to change his sentiment and conduct on this 
point, wouldst Thou not pardon him all the 
wrong he has thereby done Thee to this 
day?" "Not only would I pardon him," 
answered Jesus, "but I would also be as 
delighted with him as the young prince 
with his preceptor, should the latter, relax- 
ing his austerity, himself invite the children 
he had driven away, to return and resume 
their sports with his royal charge." 

On one occasion, when the time of Com- 
munion had arrived, Gertrude felt less 
devotion than usual. " O my soul," she 
cried within herself, " behold thy Spouse 
comes to thee and thou art without adorn- 
ment. But place all thy confidence in 
Him. Didst thou spend a thousand years 
in preparing thyself for His reception, thou 
wouldst still be unworthy of such a favor ; 



106 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

nothing thou couldst do would render thee 
worthy ; come then to Jesus with humility 
and confidence." And as she thus advanced 
to the Holy Table, deeply impressed with 
the sense of her unworthiness, Jesus Him- 
self came to her assistance, and arrayed her 
in His own virtues — His innocence, the 
humility which inclined Him towards us, 
His desire of being united to us, His love, 
the joy He tastes in our Communions, the 
confidence that urges Him to deliver Him- 
self to us, and seek the delights of His 
Heart amid our lowliness and miseries — 
all of which adornments of the soul in its 
Spouse's eyes were shown to her under 
the figure of costly garments of various 
colors. 

Once, after she had heard a long and 
terrible sermon upon God's holiness and 
justice, and the great fear with which one 
should approach the Sacraments, Jesus 
said to her: "It is not My justice, but My 
goodness and tenderness especially, I strive 
to manifest in the Eucharist. To be con- 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart. 107 

vincecl of this, let one but consider how I 
am imprisoned in a little ciborium, and 
under what lowly appearances I come to 
men, I, the King of glory ! Even thus is 
My justice imprisoned by My mercy, sweet 
mercy, which alone I extend to all in this 
Sacrament. Dost thou not see that whilst 
reducing Myself (in a certain sense) to the 
tiny proportions of the Host, I really sub- 
ordinate My Body thus humiliated, to the 
body of him who receives Me ? and this is 
only an image of my subjection of will to 
that of the communicant. 

" Why not ponder the lesson given by 
the spectacle of the priest administering 
Holy Communion ? He is clothed in rich 
sacred vestments, but he holds My Body 
in his naked hand, from which we may 
learn that although one should make every 
preparation for Communion by prayer, fasts, 
vigils and other exercises of piety, yet my 
compassionate tenderness brings Me nearer 
those who, naked of these ornaments, seek 
in this Sacrament only the fountains of My 



108 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

mercy, deeply conscious of their indigence 
and frailty. Such is My benignity, but 
many there are who will not believe it." 
On one occasion, the hour for Communion 
approached, and Gertrude had made no 
immediate preparation. "Alas ! dear Jesus," 
said she, " Thou seest how unprepared I am 
to receive Thee ! Since Thou canst do it, 
why hast Thou not supplied my deficiency?" 
" Does not a spouse," He answered, "some- 
times prefer to see the white, delicate hand 
of His beloved unadorned by a glove? 
Even so, am I often more pleased with the 
humility of the communicant than his 
devotion." 

Jesus does not even approve always of 
one's abstaining from Communion, for fear 
of scandalizing the witnesses of a fault 
recently committed. 

A Sister in Gertrude's Community once 
absented herself from the Holy Table for 
this reason. As Gertrude was praying for 
her, our Lord enlightened her (Gertrude) 
as follows : " That fault was of service to 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart 109 

our Sister's soul, because her humiliation 
and confession effaced not only it, but 
several others, even as in washing one 
stain off our hands we wash off any others 
that may be on them ; and she ought to 
have communicated, satisfied that I had 
restored her soul its interior beauty, and 
striving to become indifferent to its exte- 
rior, that is, as to what others would think 
in seeing her communicate so soon after 
her fault. In acting otherwise, she has 
attached more importance to the judgment 
of men than to privation of the grace of 
the Sacrament.' ' 

"The fruits of this Sacrament are im- 
measurable," said our Lord to Gertrude 
again. "It compensates for all spiritual 
losses and deficiencies, provided It be re- 
ceived in a state of grace. Yes, when urged 
by the vehemence of My love, I unite 
Myself by Holy Communion to a soul not 
in mortal sin, I fill it with treasures untold ; 
and, at that moment, all the inhabitants of 
Heaven, earth and purgatory even, experi- 



110 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

ence the wonderful effects of My good- 
ness." 

In all Gertrude's writings, amid the 
numberless sweet invitations of the Heart 
of Jesus urging men to seek Him in the 
Eucharist, we find but one passage breath- 
ing the spirit of severity. It refers to 
those who having permitted their tongue 
slanderous or immodest words, come to the 
Holy Table, ere expiating by Confession, 
the injury done these, His two dearest vir- 
tues — charity and purity. " These per- 
sons," said our Lord, "give Me a cruel 
welcome in Communion, not unlike that of 
a man who should greet the guest crossing 
his threshold, by letting fall upon his head 
a heavy beam or a shower of stones. I feel 
the outrage the moment My Body touches 
their tongue." On hearing this, Gertrude 
pierced to the heart with grief, exclaimed : 
" O cruel man ! how canst thou treat thus, 
Him Who flies to thy soul with an excess 
of love to embrace and save it ! " 



Confiding Love of Gertrudes Heart 111 



III. 

The Saints always united to the worship 
of the Eucharist great devotion to our 
Lord's Passion ; and Gertrude lived ever 
in the presence of Jesus on Calvary, study- 
ing her crucifix assiduously, and pondering 
the love which had embraced such suffer- 
ings for us. 

At the beginning of her conversion, she 
ardently desired to have a crucifix which 
she could honor according to her good 
pleasure ; but later, she began to fear lest 
this exterior devotion prove prejudicial to 
her interior exercises. Jesus reassured her. 
"No," said He, "on the contrary, it is very 
agreeable to Me to see thee thus honoring 
the crucifix. It is always by an effect 
of divine grace that men's eyes meet the 
Image on the Cross, and never once do they 
rest upon It, but his soul is benefited." 

One day, as Gertrude was affectionately 
holding her crucifix and kissing it, our 



112 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

Lord said to her : " Every time one kisses 
the crucifix, or looks at it with devotion, 
the eye of God's mercy is fixed upon his 
soul. He should then listen within himself 
to these words of tenderness from Me : ' Be- 
hold how I, for love of thee, have been 
nailed upon a cross — naked, disfigured, 
covered with wounds, all My members 
violently distended ; and My Heart is so 
enamored of thee, that were it necessary 
for thy salvation, I would joyfully undergo, 
for thee alone, all that I suffered for the 
whole human race.' " 

Gertrude's eyes ever sought her crucifix, 
sorrowful memento of the love of Jesus ; 
and at night, this " bundle of myrrh " (for 
so she called it) never left her hands. Not 
even this satisfied her devotion, and she 
consecrated the whole of every Friday to 
meditation on the Passion. 

More than once, our Lord made known 
to her how agreeable this devotion was to 
Him. " Even though a soul be lacking in 
fervor, yet will I look upon her with much 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart 113 

love, if she sometimes meditate upon My 
Passion. It is an exercise possessing a 
value in My eyes infinitely surpassing that 
of any other. Even a short meditation 
upon My Passion, is worth more than long 
and multiplied acts of piety that have no 
direct reference to My sufferings and 
death." 

IV. 

Devoted to the Eucharist and the Pas- 
sion, Gertrude nevertheless concentrated 
all her love of Jesus Christ, all her acts of 
piety in a devotion eminently embodying 
the others — devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

Jesus, indeed, is entire in His Heart, and 
it is there she found at their inexhaustible 
source, the gifts of His love, there she saw 
the abysses of His most cruel sufferings. 

It was in 1674, Jesus confided to Blessed 
Margaret Mary the mission of proclaiming 
to the world the love and plaints of His 
Heart ; but four centuries previously, had 
He already ordered Gertrude to write the 
8 



114 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

book reveal! ;„ the depths of His Heart. 
Henceforth, she was (this book confirming 
it forever) the confidante most intimate, 
the Evangelist dearest among the Spouses 
of the Heart of Jesus. 

On the feast of St. John, Gertrude was 
shown the disciple whom Jesus loved, in 
glory incomparable. " Dearest Lord," 
said our Saint to Jesus Christ, " why dost 
Thou present me, me so unworthy, to Thy 
Beloved Disciple?" "Because I wish to 
establish between him and thee a holy 
friendship ; henceforth, will he be in 
Heaven, thy faithful protector." 

John now said to Gertrude, " Spouse of 
my Master, come let us repose our heads 
upon our dear Lord's bosom ; in it are all 
the treasures of Heaven." And as they 
were thus reclining, Gertrude on the right, 
John on the left side of Jesus, the Beloved 
Disciple continued : " Here is the Holy of 
Holies, whither are attracted as towards 
their centre, everything on earth and in 
Heaven." 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart 115 

Meanwhile, the beatings of the Heart of 
Jesus ravished Gertrude's soul. "Beloved 
of the Lord," she asked St. John, " did not 
these harmonious pulsations, now filling my 
soul with joy, delight thine when at the 
Last Supper thou didst recline upon the 
Master's bosom?" "Yes, their sweetness 
penetrated to the depths of my being." 
" Whence comes it then that thou hast said 
so little about it in the Gospel?" "My 
ministry in those days of the early Church 
was limited to making known the Uncre- 
ated Word, the Eternal Son of the Father, 
only saying what would serve as fruitful 
meditation for man's intelligence, and not 
exhausting the riches of these divine trea- 
sures. To later days, the far future, was 
reserved the grace of hearing the eloquent 
voice of the throbbings of Jesus Christ's 
Heart. At this persuasive voice, the world 
grown old, will be rejuvenated, and arous- 
ing from its torpor, it will be inflamed with 
the fire of divine love." 

The following from another portion of 



116 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

Gertrude's book sounds like an echo of 
these pulsations of our Lord's Heart: "Ah! 
dearest Lord," exclaimed Gertrude, on see- 
ing her companions hastening to the chapel 
to assist at a sermon, whilst she, sick and 
suffering, was unable to accompany them, 
" how I would love to hear the sermon ! " 
" Wouldst thou have Me to preach thee a 
sermon, Beloved?" said our Lord. "Oh! 
joyfully indeed would I listen to Thee," 
answered Gertrude. Then Jesus inclining 
her soul towards His Heart, she immedi- 
ately distinguished two harmonious pulsa- 
tions. " One of these throbs," said Jesus, 
" works the sanctification of the just, the 
other, the salvation of sinners." 

"The first is ever pleading with My 
Father, to appease His justice and open 
the fountains of His mercy. By this also 
do I speak to all the Saints, making 
excuses to them for sinners, with the indul- 
gence and zeal of a good Brother, and 
urging them to intercede for these unhappy 



Confiding Love of Gertrude's Heart. 117 

creatures, deaf to the voice of My love. 
This same throb is likewise the incessant 
appeal I mercifully address the sinner 
himself, with that inexpressible desire of 
seeing him return to Me, which never 
wearies of awaiting him. 

" By the second throb, I ever repeat to 
My Father how much I congratulate 
Myself on having shed My Blood to 
redeem so many just, in whose hearts I 
find My delights. I invite the whole 
celestial court to admire with Me the life 
of these perfect souls, and return thanks 
to God for the blessings He has already 
bestowed upon them or has prepared for 
them hereafter. In fine, this throb of My 
Heart is the habitual and familiar conver- 
sation I have with the just, either to testify 
My love for them, or to reprove their faults 
and thus hourly and daily advance them in 
the paths of perfection. 

" As no exterior occupation, no distrac- 
tion of sight or sound ever interrupts the 



118 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

throbbings of the heart of man, even thus 
in the providential government of the Uni- 
verse, will nothing to the end of ages ever 
arrest, or slacken for an instant, these two 
pulsations of My Heart." 



CHAPTEK IX. 

Wfa Jlfonkmmimi nf §wivnW$ If&trt 
ixt % itoxrfo Jhn%uv$ of $&tt&+ 

pi ERTRUDE had great confidence in 
^-^ the love of Jesus Christ become Man 
for love of His brethren ; and without for- 
getting that Jesus is God, she always 
remembered that He is Man. This con- 
fidence, as we have seen, banished fear 
from her soul ; and yet more — it disposed 
her to receive with unfailing faith and 
serenity, whatever came from His fraternal 
hand, blessing Him alike under all cir- 
cumstances, and blindly abandoning her- 
self to the good pleasure of His Heart. 
■ 

i. 

It was to these dispositions she owed 
the joy that irradiated her countenance — 

119 



120 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

nothing troubled her, neither physical suf- 
ferings, nor persecutions, nor interior trials. 
Tribulation, indeed, seemed rather to in- 
crease her joy, for she firmly believed that 
the love of Jesus Christ directed all the 
events of life, and it could draw from 
all, tribulation especially, the soul's best 
aliment. Hence, she neither tasted nor 
wished to taste anything save the good 
pleasure of Jesus Christ, and her heart 
could conceive of no other motives of 
action, either of choosing, desiring, mourn- 
ing or rejoicing, save in this same good 
pleasure. 

One trifling incident alone, of frequent 
recurrence, manifested to Gertrude's Sis- 
ters this perfect abandonment of her will. 
When presented with clothing, furniture, 
fruits — divers objects, and given her choice 
among each, she w 7 ould close her eyes, and 
reaching forth her hand, accept as from 
Jesus Himself, the first of these articles it 
met. 

"I could not be irritated against Ger- 



Abandonment of Gertrude's Heart 121 

trude," said our Lord to Saint Mechtilde, 
"for she finds all My ways perfect; and 
amiable, all My dispositions in regard to 
herself, even the most painful. Wherefore, 
all her works please Me, and when some 
imperfections are mingled with them, My 
mercy excuses these human infirmities." 

" Gertrude," said He again, " clings so 
closely to My Heart, and I have so cemented 
the bonds uniting us, that she has become 
one with Me. She lives in absolute depend- 
ence upon My will ; the members of one's 
body being not less dependent upon the 
heart than Gertrude upon My will. As a 
man says only in thought to the hand, do 
this ; to the eye, look ; to the tongue, speak ; 
to the foot, advance, and these members 
instantly obey, so Gertrude is to Me a 
hand, an eye, a tongue, obeying My least 
desires." 

II. 

Numberless and admirable were the les- 
sons of Jesus Christ imprinting these perfect 



122 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

dispositions upon Gertrude's heart. By 
1 degrees, He made her understand that 
everything comes to the just from the 
hand of God ; that sufferings and humilia- 
tions are of an incomparable price and the 
most precious gifts of His providence; 
likewise, that spiritual infirmities, tempta- 
tions, even faults may become, through His 
grace, powerful instruments of sanctifica- 
tion. Jesus also made known to her that 
He hears His friends' prayers, even when 
He seems to neglect or repulse them ; that 
in His sight, the intention alone is the merit 
of one's works, and that even good desires 
are accounted works. He revealed to her 
the sovereign perfection of complete aban- 
donment to His good pleasure, and the joy 
of His Heart at seeing a soul blindly com- 
mit itself to the care of His providence and 
love. 

Gertrude knew how to profit by these 
lights ; she obeyed these impulses of grace, 
and her heart learned to sing hourly the 
hymn of abandonment, the hymn of the 



Abandonment of Gertrude's Heart 123 

Heart of Jesus Christ: "Yea, Father, for 
so it hath seemed good in Thy sight: " Ita, 
Pater, quia sie fuit plaeitum ante te. 

" Would that My friends/ ' said Jesus to 
His Spouse, " deemed Me less harsh. Let 
them do Me the justice of believing that 
if sometimes I oblige them to serve Me 
laboriously and at a sacrifice, it is for their 
good alone, and their supreme good. Oh ! 
if instead of being irritated at their troubles 
or against their enemies, they would con- 
sider these but the instruments of My 
paternal bounty ! The rod in the hand 
of a father correcting his son must needs 
obey the will of him who wields it ; 
and the wicked are the rod with which 
I correct My children. I do so in love, 
for were not contradiction and correction 
necessary to cure their faults, or increase 
their eternal glory, never should a rough 
wind blow upon them. A right under- 
standing of these things would fill them 
with pity for their enemies instead of 
indignation, for in purifying the good, 



124 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

these often stain themselves with grievous 
sins." 

In these words of the Salve Regina 
"Turn thine eyes of mercy towards us," 
Gertrude was once begging Jesus to give 
her health. He answered with a smile : 
" It is when thou art sick in body or 
troubled in soul that Mine eyes of mercy 
are fixed upon thee. Didst thou not know 
this?" 

Sad and disheartened, she said to Him : 
"What shall I do now to please Thee?" 
" Learn to suffer patiently," was the answer. 
" Lord, teach me," she said. Then Jesus, 
drawing her towards Him, as does the 
teacher a little child whom he is going to 
teach its letters, spoke to her as follows : 
" Know thou that the King has no friend 
more dear than he who most resembles him. 
And hence, the greater is My love for thee, 
the more thou strivest to become like Me 
by patient suffering. Think, too, how all 
the court honors the King's favorite, believ- 
ing that a glorious recompense in Heaven, 



Abandonment of Gertrude's Heart 125 

will crown thy daily sufferings here. Be- 
think thyself again, that a faithful friend 
always compassionates his friend's suffer- 
ings, and endeavors to assuage them by 
his caresses. What then may est thou not 
expect in Heaven from the tenderness of 
My affection which carefully notes all thy 
pains and sorrows ? " 

The monastery being burdened with a 
heavy debt, Gertrude begged our Lord to 
send the trustees the means of paying 
it. Jesus smiled sweetly, and said: "And 
what will I gain by that?" "What 
wilt Thou gain, Lord?" she answered. 
"That the trustees serve Thee with less 
solicitude and more devotion." "But sup- 
pose I do not wish them to serve Me 
thus," said Jesus. "It is the intention 
which makes all the merit, either of solici- 
tude or peace. Had I preferred being 
served in the peace of contemplation, I 
would have provided for it, by exempting 
redeemed humanity from the cares inci- 
dent upon nourishment, lodging, clothing; 



126 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

but I derive more profit from the labor of 
My friends." 

Gertrude, at this moment, perceived, 
bending low before Jesus, a man who, 
arising with great effort, placed in our 
Lord's hands a piece of gold, in the centre 
of which gleamed a beautiful diamond. 
"If I had granted thy petition." continued 
Jesus, "the trustee could have given Me 
only the gold piece without the diamond, 
and his recompense would have been less 
in Heaven. To do My will amid peace 
and consolation is to give Me a gold piece; 
amid trials and cares, is to add to the gold 
piece a costly diamond." 

Gertrude was once praying for a friend 
who had sustained a serious injury. "I 
will restore her the use of the afflicted 
member," said our Lord, " although she 
purchases a great reward by her sufferings." 
" How can our sufferings have so much 
merit?" inquired Gertrude, '• for we take 
remedies to assuage them, and we would 
rid ourselves of them entirely, if possible." 



Abandonment of Gertrude s Heart 127 

"Yes," replied our Lord, "but what suf- 
fering remains after one has exhausted 
attempts at relief, will, if borne patiently 
for love of Me, work the sufferer incompa- 
rable glory ; I myself sanctified it, when in 
My Agony in the Garden, I cried to My 
Father, ' My Father, if it be possible, let 
this chalice pass from Me.' " " But, Lord," 
again asked Gertrude, " would it not be 
more pleasing to Thee if, instead of resign- 
ing ourselves lovingly only to such suffer- 
ings as will not be assuaged, one patiently 
suffers all, without seeking alleviation ? " 
" That is the secret of My justice ; " He 
answered, " according to the human con- 
ception of things, these two diverse senti- 
ments are like two beautiful shades of 
color, perfectly distinct, and so beautiful, 
that it were impossible to decide between 
them." "Lord," continued Gertrude, 
" when I make known to the sick per- 
son the instructions Thou hast given me 
on this subject, deign, I pray Thee, to fill 
her with a sensible impression of joy." 



128 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

" No ; " answered our Lord, " If I did so, 
three of her virtues would lose their bright- 
ness — her patience, for the joy would make 
her forget her sufferings ; her faith, these 
vivid impressions rendering evident the 
mysterious designs of My Providence ; her 
humility, in the consciousness that I had 
thus favored her. It is far more profitable 
to her soul, that she believe God deems her 
unworthy of communicating His graces and 
benefits directly to her." 

III. 

Gertrude had arisen from several spells 
of illness ; after a seventh relapse, she said 
to Jesus : " O Father of Mercies, will I be 
long sick ? " " My Paternal Providence," 
answered Jesus, " sees fit to leave thee in 
ignorance of this. If I had told thee at the 
beginning of thy illness, that thou wert to 
suffer seven successive attacks, thy patience 
perhaps had not sufficed for such a burden ; 
if I w 7 ere to tell thee now that this spell 



Abandonment of Gertrude's Heart 129 

would be the last, or of short duration, 
such knowledge would greatly diminish 
thy merits. Leave to Me the disposing of 
this as of everything else in thy regard ; I 
know thy weakness, and I will proportion 
the trial according to thy strength. Thanks 
to the ingenuities of My love, thy will stands 
firmer after the seventh attack than at the 
first." 

Some one complaining to Gertrude of a 
lack of divine consolations in her spiritual 
exercises and even in Holy Communion on 
solemn feast days, our Saint asked Jesus 
the reason. " It is for the greater good of 
her soul," He answered; "humility is often 
more profitable than devotion. Moreover, 
I am often nearest the soul at the very time 
it complains of My remoteness. When a 
friend embraces us, do we distinguish his 
features as clearly as when he is a little 
farther off? "With consolation, are not 
unfrequently mingled imperfections that 
impede the abundant effusion of My 
graces. I could prevent these imperfec- 
9 



130 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

tions even whilst flooding the soul with 
sensible joy, but when humiliations ward 
them off, the soul acquires more merit." 

A lay Sister was greatly troubled that 
the multiplicity of her manual labors inter- 
fered with her meditations. Gertrude rec- 
ommended her to our Lord. "She wishes," 
answered Jesus, " to serve me an hour, and 
I exact much more of her, desiring to have 
her with Me the whole day, these multiplied 
duties of which she complains, uniting her 
inseparably to Me : wherefore, let her do 
all things, not only with an eye to the 
corporal welfare of the Sisters, but even 
the advancement of their souls in My love. 
Every time she performs an action thus, 
she prepares for Me a delicious repast." 

Gertrude was once recommending to 
Jesus a person who often fell into the same 
faults. " I will leave her the temptation," 
said He; "it causes her to acknowledge 
and deplore the fault she tries so hard to 
correct, and yet has the humiliation of fall- 
ing into so often. This nourishes humility 



Abandonment of Gertrude's Heart 131 

in her heart; and whilst she combats the 
inclination and grieves over these sins, I 
am working within her the destruction of 
several others that she scarcely perceives. 
When we wash our hands to rid them of 
one stain, we also wash off others that may 
be on them." 

Our Saint begging Jesus to correct the 
faults of one of the Superiors of the monas- 
tery, He made this reply : " Not he alone 
of whom thou speakest to Me has faults, 
but each of the other Superiors of My dear 
Community, has likewise, his own. It is 
My tender love for thee which has willed 
it thus for thy greater merit. It is indeed 
far more meritorious to obey a Superior 
whose defects are apparent, than one whose 
works seem perfect." 

IV. 

" I have been prayed for so much," said 
a person to Gertrude, " and yet I do not 
experience any of the good effects." Ger- 



132 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

trade asked our Lord the reason of this. 
His answer was : "Ask that person if some 
one were to offer her either a benefice for 
her little brother, or its present value in 
money, w-hich she would choose. Her good 
sense would no doubt prompt her to select 
the former, the revenues of which would 
accumulate until the child reached his 
majority, whilst money placed in his hands 
would soon be frittered away. Let her 
apply this to herself, and confide entirely 
in My bounty ; I am her Father, her 
Brother, her Friend, much more preoccu- 
pied with her true interests, both of body 
and soul, than she could ever be with those 
of another. I faithfully collect the fruits 
of all the prayers, all the good desires 
offered Me for her, and I will remit them 
into her hands, at a time when it will be 
out of her power to let them slip from her." 
Gertrude herself was once complaining 
thus to our Lord : " Thou hast said to me, 
dearest Lord, ' Command, and I will hasten 
to obey, even as a subject his sovereign.' I 



Abandonment of Gertrude's Heart 133 

wish not, my good God, to doubt these, Thy 
words of merciful condescension, but whence 
comes it then, that so often my prayers seem 
without effect?" Jesus answered : " A queen 
says to her servant, ' Take that string off my 
left shoulder/ He hastens to obey, but per- 
ceives that it hangs from the right. Now, 
as the queen cannot see her shoulders, he 
quietly takes the string hanging from the 
right, and gives it to her, knowing that it 
is better to act thus than violently to snatch 
from the left side a string of some of her 
garments. And thus it is with thy pray- 
ers ; when I seem not to hear them, I am 
often, in reality, obeying thy dearest desires, 
and according thee graces more precious 
than those thou askest." 



One festival day, Gertrude confined to 
her cell by sickness, grieved at not being 
able to assist at Vespers. "Alas! dear 
Lord Jesus," she said, "would it not be 



134 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

more to Thy glory were I now with my 
Sisters, chanting Thy praises, instead of 
losing my time like this in quiet and inac- 
tion ? " Jesus answered : " Is not a spouse 
as well pleased to converse familiarly with 
his beloved at home as to behold her else- 
where, arrayed in fine and costly garments ? 
Know, however, that good desires alone 
content Me, when it is I who hinder their 
execution, and nothing is as agreeable to 
Me as to have My friends abandon them- 
selves to My good pleasure." 

" What are thy commands, O My Sov- 
ereign Mistress ? " said Jesus, on one occa- 
sion, to Gertrude. She answered : " I beg 
of Thee, with all my heart, to accomplish 
most perfectly in me, Thy good pleasure." 
Jesus then mentioned several persons whom 
Gertrude had recommended to Him, and 
continued: "What shall I do for these, 
and also that other, who was recommended 
to thy prayers to-day ? " "I ask nothing, 
save that Thy most amiable will be accom- 
plished in thern." "And what for thyself? " 



Abandonment of Gertrude's Heart 135 

" Only that Thou deign accomplish fully in 
nie, and in every creature, Thy holy will, 
and to obtain this, I would undergo every 
torture." "This disposition of thy heart is 
so agreeable to Me," said Jesus, " that it 
has adorned thy soul with beauty incom- 
parable, so that it now appears in My sight 
as if it had never contradicted My will 
even in things the most trifling." 

As Gertrude was once praying for a 
person who had said in her presence : 
" The trials God sends me are not the sort 
I need; a different kind would suit me 
better," our Lord answered her thus: 
"Ask her what kind of trials she does 
need, for it is only through these she gains 
Heaven ; tell her also that when they do 
come, she must bear them patiently." 
" Our Lord's tone and manner made Ger- 
trude understand that it is very dangerous 
to desire crosses different from those He 
sends. Suddenly, changing His counte- 
nance and voice, He said to Gertrude: 
" Art thou, too, dissatisfied with the trials 



136 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

I send thee? Do thine seem to thee ill 
chosen ? " " Oh ! no, Lord," was her 
answer; "I acknowledge, and will acknow- 
ledge all my days, that Thy Providence 
has wonderfully disposed every event of 
life — health or sickness, joy or sorrow, for 
the good of both my body and soul." It 
now seemed to Gertrude that Jesus con- 
ducted her, first to the Heavenly Father, 
then to the Holy Spirit, before whom, at 
our Lord's invitation, she repeated the 
profession she had just made, after which, 
Jesus said to her: "From this moment 
henceforward, I am obliged to have a more 
especial care of thee," by which she under- 
stood that Jesus encompasses with His 
Providence those who thus commit them- 
selves to His love, as the Superior of a 
monastery feels his obligation to watch 
solicitously over the necessities of the 
Religious, since by their vows they have 
renounced all temporal goods and cares. 
'•' The soul," continued Jesus, " who 
blindly confides in Me, is that dove men- 



Abandonment of Gertrude's Heart 137 

tioned in Scripture as chosen among thou- 
sands. She is that best beloved Spouse 
whose look alone wounds My Heart ; and 
if I were powerless to help her, My Heart 
would experience such desolation as all the 
joys of Heaven could not assuage." " I 
see," answered Gertrude, "that abandon- 
ment to Thee ravishes Thy Heart. But 
tell me how to obtain this perfect gift of 
Thee?" "My grace," said Jesus, "is 
wanting to no one; and what person is 
there that cannot, if he will, at least force 
his lips to murmur some of those many 
words of abandonment and confidence scat- 
tered throughout the Holy Scriptures, such 
as : ' Thou hast saved my soul out of dis- 
tresses ; ' 'Although He should slay me, I 
will trust Him ? ? " 

" Some trials," continued Jesus, " are much 
harder to bear than others, and probe the 
human heart to its depths ; for instance, the 
grief one feels at the death of a dear friend, 
or the hourly expectation of it. But in all 
such cases, the afflicted Christian, assisted 



138 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

by My grace, can resign himself to My 
good will and say : ' I accept whatever 
God ordains ; and I would willingly sacri- 
fice my own desires were I given a choice 
between them and the accomplishment of 
His will.' The soul thus forcing itself for 
even an hour to bend its will to Mine, may 
rest confident that I will ever ensure to this 
generous act its first perfection, and far 
from being offended by that prostration 
and dejection which naturally follows, I 
will make all conducive to its eternal wel- 
fare and temporal consolation. When 
wrapped in grief, this soul deplores its sad 
loss, and ponders the cruel void death has 
made in its affections, My compassion will 
regard this as a mere outgrowth of human 
frailty, and I engage myself to compensate 
these passing sorrows by never-ending joys 
and merit. My goodness will constrain Me to 
act thus. When the artist has made a place 
in the precious metal for its setting of pearls, 
he must needs insert them. Nor does My 
goodness ever leave its works unfinished." 



CHAPTEE X. 

rpHE peaceful abandonment of the Heart 
of Jesus to Its Father's good pleasure, 
was Its supreme act of zeal for His Father's 
glory ; this abandonment, in reality, consti- 
tuting the absolute reign of God over man's 
will. Jesus longed to establish this reign 
cf God in all souls, thus saving them and 
extending God's kingdom, and the fire of 
zeal, which devoured His Sacred Heart, 
was also a burning flame in that of Ger- 
trude's, His Spouse. 



It was zeal for the salvation of souls 
which urged her to reveal those wonderful 
graces with which our Lord favored her; 

139 



140 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

zeal, also, which made her so often defer 
her frugal repasts, abridge her hours of 
repose, neglect the care of her delicate 
body. Meditation was to her an antici- 
pated Heaven, yet, whilst thus engaged, 
did a soul solicit her charity, she never 
hesitated an instant at the sacrifice, but 
abandoned her dearest exercises with a 
cheerfulness that beamed in her counte- 
nance. 

Her meditations were, we might say, 
scarcely more than an incessant prayer to 
God for the increasing sanctification of the 
just and the conversion of sinners. Always 
patient, compassionate and affable towards 
those whose vices or faults stood between 
their souls and God, she nevertheless could 
not tolerate the vices and faults themselves, 
and spared herself no effort for their eradi- 
cation. Some one once said to her: "Pray 
no longer for such or such persons ; waste 
no more advice on them ; if they are damned 
you will certainly have nothing to answer 
for." "Oh!" answered our Saint, "how 



The Zeal of Gertrude's Heart. 141 

these cruel words pierce me like a sword: 
I would rather die than console myself 
thus for the loss of a soul ! " 

One of the most habitual and deepest 
griefs of her heart, was the thought of so 
many Jews and pagans who lived, and 
died perhaps, without participating in the 
riches of the divine mercy. 

II. 

Gertrude prayed and immolated herself 
for the conversion of infidels and sinners ; 
hut the greatest activity of her zeal was 
directed to the sanctification of the souls 
of the Religious under her charge. Jesus, 
one day, appeared to her, almos-t bowed to 
the ground beneath the weight of an im- 
mense house upon His shoulders. " Thou 
seest," He said to her, "how nearly crushed 
I am beneath this edifice, which is that of 
the Religious State ; it is everywhere giving 
way, and few are the generous souls that 
meet and assist Me in bearing the burden 



142 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

of it. O My Best Beloved, have compassion 
upon Me." From that day henceforth, 
Gertrude was most vigilant in maintaining 
the rule in her monastery, herself setting 
the example of a heroic fidelity in the 
observance of it. " Every Religious," said 
our Lord to Gertrude, " is obliged to labor 
for the correction and sanctification of his 
brethren. He should advise them of their 
faults, or acquaint the Superior with them, 
that they may be remedied. Let no one 
shirk this positive duty, excusing himself 
by saying : ' It is not my place to correct 
others/ or, ' I am no better than they are.' 
Such conduct is like that of Cain, whose 
answer to God's inquiry about his brother 
was : ' Am I my brother's keeper V It is 
I who warn every Religious that if, through 
his negligence or indifference, his brethren 
perish, I will demand of him an account of 
these souls, more rigorous, perhaps, in some 
instances, than of the Superiors themselves; 
for circumstances may prevent these latter 
from remarking defects that others, in a 



The Zeal of Gertrude's Heart 143 

different position, see readily. Not to labor 
to correct the faults of one's brethren is to 
be an accomplice; for it is written: not 
only ' Woe to him who does evil/ but like- 
wise, ' Woe to him who consents to evil : 
V03 facienti; vce, vce consentientV " 

To these words of Jesus deeply engraven 
upon Gertrude's heart, was due the pene- 
trating vigor of her corrections. Without 
forgetting, for an instant, her maternal 
benignity, she could give, when needed, 
such vigor to her accents and words that 
the guilty trembled and the most rebellious 
hung the head. 

Gertrude had once corrected thus a Sister 
wmose many virtues rendered her very dear 
to our Saint. Shortly after, the Sister 
deeply touched, said to Jesus : " Lord, I 
pray Thee, temper this too fervent zeal of 
Thy beloved Gertrude." " When I lived 
on earth," He answered, "the sight of 
iniquity enkindled within Me just such 
zeal." " But, Lord," continued the Sister, 
" Thou didst say harsh words only to those 



144 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

who were obstinate in evil; whilst Gertrude 
is very severe to those who are esteemed 
Thy friends, and considered good." " Like- 
wise did those among the Jews," replied 
our Lord, " who were most violent against 
Me, pass, in the eyes of all, for very holy 
persons." 

It was thus Jesus urged and assisted His 
Spouse, to pursue even the shadow of evil 
in the souls of the just, at the same time 
that He revealed to her how great must be 
her hope in His mercy for the conversion 
of the greatest sinners — stimulating her 
zeal, in turns, by fear and love. 

A clergyman having said in her presence, 
that no one could be saved without charity 
- — that is, unless the repentance for his sins 
proceeded, in part, at least, from love of 
God, Gertrude felt grieved and perplexed. 
"Alas!" she thought, "what will become 
of so many sinners, who seem to repent at 
the hour of death, but only from fear of 
hell ? " Jesus answered : " When I see on 
the brink of death, persons who have been 



The Zeal of Gertrude's Heart. 145 

not unkindly disposed towards Me, and who, 
perhaps, have done some good works in My 
honor, just at the moment they are about 
to leave this world, I appear to them, 
with looks so compassionate and loving, 
that their hearts are touched to the depths, 
and they make that act of contrition which 
saves their souls. I desire that My elect 
in remembering My other benefits, w T ould 
render thanks to Me for this supreme act 
of mercy towards dying sinners." 



10 



CHAPTER XL 

!>§£ drafting nf Ssrtntte** If&ttt 

TESUS, whilst revealing to Gertrude all 
^ the mysteries of His love for her and 
for sinners, frequently invited her to pay 
Him, in the name of all, a debt nearly all 
forget — that of thanksgiving. Gertrude 
was grateful, very grateful, and her life, 
her writings are one hymn of thanksgiving. 
Let the following from her book confirm 
our words : * 

* Within the last few years, God seems to have 
awakened in the hearts of men a strong impulse of 
gratitude, three Associations or Works devoted to 
Thanksgiving having been recently founded, one 
in Spain, and two in France. The oldest of these, 
having St. Gertrude for its especial patroness, we 
deem it not out of place to give here a hasty glance 
at them : 

146 



The Gratitude of Gertrude's Heart 147 

"May my heart, my soul, my senses, 
return Thee thanks for Thy infinite mer- 
cies, O God most tender, Friend most 
faithful. Powerless to bless and thank 
Thee, as I should, O my God, I pray Thee 
to cover with Thy benefits, those who aid 
me, if only by a sigh, in paying Thee my 

I. Schools of Gratitude (Escuelas de Gratitud). 
The founder of these is an old officer of high rank 
in the Spanish army. In these schools, abandoned 
children are collected. Here they are raised and 
educated gratuitously, the principal feature of their 
education being the development in their hearts of 
gratitude to God. The organization of the work is 
admirable. Thanks to God's all powerful aid, the 
noble Spanish soldier's work finds generous pro- 
moters in France. Spain already counts four 
Schools of Gratitude. The principal house is in 
Madrid, and was founded in 1863. 

For more ample information, address Sr. D. 
Manuel Campoy, Director de los Escuelas de Grati- 
tud, Bajada de Sta. Cruz, Madrid, Spain. 

II. Association of Thanksgiving. — The centre of 
this Work is at Mauron, a little village of Morbi- 
han. Its first Indulgences were accorded by Pius 
IX, November 19, 1859. 

Feasts of the Association. — The Thirteenth Sun- 



148 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

debt of gratitude. I henceforth offer Thee 
for them the Passion of Thy Beloved Son, 
and conjure Thee to keep alive in my heart 
to the end of ages this offering, that it may 
obtain full pardon of all their sins and 
negligences. 

"Be Thou blessed, O my Lord most 

day after Pentecost (this is the principal), Corpus 
Christi, the Sacred Heart, the Annunciation, the 
Visitation, the Chair of St. Peter at Koine, on all 
of which feasts may be gained a Plenary Indul- 
gence; likewise, on the day of one's enrolment 
upon the register of the Association. There are 
also various partial Indulgences. 

Practices of the Association. — A monthly Com- 
munion of thanksgiving, an offering of two Masses 
a year in thanksgiving, and daily aspirations of 
thanksgiving. 

No one is received into the Association, except 
those who, after reflection, are determined seriously 
to offer acts of thanksgiving to God both for them- 
selves and others, striving thus to pay the great 
debt of gratitude. 

Further information may be obtained from M. 
Levoyer, Priest, Director of the Association at 
Mauron, Morbihan. 

III. The Association of Perpetual Thanksgiving. 



The Gratitude of Gertrude's Heart 149 

merciful, for the assurance of my hopes 
Thy bounty has given me by promising 
that, whoever returns Thee thanks for me, 
though he be in sin, shall not leave this 
world until Thou hast converted him, or 
guided him to greater sanctity, and his 
heart be worthy of becoming Thy abode." 

— This was founded about the year 1853, although 
Providence had prepared the way for it several 
years previously. The principal centres are Koine, 
Marseilles, Bordeaux, etc. In Rome, the chapel 
of the Association is the Oratorio del Caravita; 
in Marseilles and Bordeaux, the chapel of the 
Jesuits. 

End of the Association, — To offer the Holy Trinity 
Perpetual Thanksgiving. for all blessings vouchsafed 
man, especially for the gift of the Holy Eucharist, 
the new manifestation Jesus has made to the world 
of the riches of His Divine Heart, for the Blessed 
Virgin's glorious privileges, and all the graces 
accorded the Church through the intercession of 
the Immaculate Mother of God. 

Practices of the Association. — Daily to recite a 
short formula of thanksgiving. 

Every Month to assist at a pious reunion on the 
third Thursday, at which reunion, a Mass of 
Thanksgiving is celebrated before the Blessed 



150 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

For ages, pious souls have responded to 
Gertrude's prayers, and gathered the fruits 
of the divine promises, by reciting the 
folio wins: formula of thanksgiving: 

O Gertrude, blessed Spouse of Jesus 
Christ, Avith all my heart do I thank Him 
for the gifts He has lavished upon thee ! 

Sacrament exposed. This is followed by a sermon 
on Thanksgiving, Benediction of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment and the singing of the Magnificat. 

Once a year the members are invited to make a 
week's thanksgiving, offering up with this intention 
all their works, etc., of that week. 

From Wednesday of Passion Week t > Holy 
Thursday inclusive, the members make a X ovena 
of Thanksgiving for the institution of the Blessed 
Eucharist, in which they also return thanks to 
God for all the favors and dignities vouchsafed 
priests, and: solicit His bounty for worthy cele- 
brants of the Mysteries of the Altar. 

Feasts of the Association. — The feasts of the 
Epiphany, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, the Sacred 
Heart, Annunciation, Our Lady of Thanksgiving 
(April 12), the Seven Dolors (third Sunday in Sep- 
tember), St. John the Evangelist, St. Gertrude, the 
principal patroness of the Association, and St. Felix 
of Cantalicio, secondary patron. 



The Gratitude of Gertrudes Heart. 151 

Thanks be to Jesus, that He eternally 
predestined thee for such favors ! 

Thanks be to Jesus, who didst so amor- 
ously draw thee to Him ! 

Thanks be to Jesus, who united thy 
heart to His ! 

Thanks be to Jesus, who prepared 

Plenary Indulgences. — On all the above-men- 
tioned feasts ; on the third Thursday of each month, 
on the day of reunion ; on any one day of the Week 
of Thanksgiving, also, on any one day of the Xovena 
of Thanksgiving, and on the day of one's enrolment 
on the register of the Association. 

Children who make the Week of Thanksgiving, 
but have not yet been admitted to the Holy Table, 
are entitled to the Plenary Indulgence, upon the 
performance of certain good works enjoined by 
their confessor. 

The Association enjoys also several partial Indul- 
gences. It is recommended to the associates that 
they frequently make use of this short and beauti- 
ful aspiration : " Deo gratias ! " 

The directors of this Association published, in 
1864, a pamphlet of two hundred pages, and en- 
titled, Be V Action De Grace. Victor Palme, Paris, 
Eue Saint Sulpice, 22. 

A Religious Community, that of Notre Dame 



152 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

for Himself in thy heart a delightful 
abode ! 

Thanks be to Jesus, ^vho consummated 
the work of thy sanctity, crowning thee 
worthily in Heaven ! 

O happy Spouse of Jesus, I congratulate 
thee, and beg of thee to obtain for me, 

Auxiliatrice, lauded and blessed by Pius IX, is the 
centre of this Association. 

The principal work of this Community, combin- 
ing both the active and contemplative life, is the 
preservation in the paths of virtue and piety of 
young workingmen, apprentices, those who stand 
in city stores, etc., and the most salient feature of 
their Institute is the cultivation among themselves 
and those under their charge, of the spirit of grati- 
tude and thanksgiving. Their houses could justly 
be called Houses of Our Lady of Thanksgiving, for 
they are indeed both asylums of preservation and 
schools of thanksgiving. 

The Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, is the prin- 
cipal object of their worship of thanksgiving, these 
Religious of Notre Dame Auxiliatrice, day and 
night, in the name of their brethren, responding, 
by uninterrupted thanksgivings, to this plaint of 
Jesus: "Instead of gratitude, they have for Me 
only ingratitude." 



The Gratitude of Gertrude's Heart 153 

through the gentle Heart of thy Spouse, 
a heart pure, humble, gentle, full of con- 
fidence, burning with love for the Heart 
of Jesus and filial devotion to His glorious 
Mother — a heart, in fine, devoured with 
zeal for God's glory and the salvation of 
souls. Amen. 

These two aims, so beautiful and opportune, of 
this Institute, and the efficacious means employed 
to attain them, have greatly rejoiced the Holy 
Father, and his benedictions have rapidly produced 
abundant fruits, so that it already has four houses 
in France : 

At Toulouse, Rue des Buchers, 4 ; 

At Castelnauday, Faubourg Montleon ; 

At Amiens, Rue des Coiroyers, 105 ; 

At Lyons, Rue Francois Dauphin, 7. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

TT^ORTY years and eleven days had Ger- 
-*- trude filled the office of Abbess,* 
when she was struck by paralysis, which 
affected almost her whole body, leaving 
her in this helpless condition twenty-two 
weeks. During all this time she could say 
but these two words : " Spiritus metis, my 
spirit." The Sisters who waited on her, 
most frequently were unable to understand 
her desires, for in spite of all her repeated 
efforts, she could not interpret them by 

-According to several authors, Gertrude first 
entered the monastery of Eodersdorff, of which 
she was elected Abbess, at the age of thirty. 
Thence she went to Heldelfs, which she governed 
until her death. Heldelfs is about half a mile 
distant from Eisleben, Gertrude's native place. 

154 



Gertrude's Blessed Death. 155 

anything more intelligible, murmuring 
again and again, " Spiritus mens" When, 
as often happened, after continued repeti- 
tions of them, her attendants could not 
make out what she desired, our amiable 
Saint would smile so sweetly and graciously 
that they smiled too, and she would relapse 
into silence, and this without the slightest 
sign of impatience, her countenance retain- 
ing even to the last such unruffled serenity, 
her eyes such untroubled peace, that it was 
truly remarked of her, " Gertrude's eyes 
are those of a dove." 

When the Sisters or others came into 
her cell, Gertrude would greet them with 
a look and a slight movement of the hand 
paralysis had spared. Then she remained 
motionless in an unbroken peace, which 
was communicated to her visitors, and filled 
them with so vivid an impression of joy 
that no one ever grew w 7 eary of watching 
beside her. 

On learning that one of her Religious 
was seriously ill, she made known her 



156 The Heart of St. Gertrude. 

desire of being taken to the sick one's 
bedside by such expressive and earnest 
gestures that no one could resist them. 
Reaching the spot, she testified her com- 
passion by tender maternal caresses, and 
left her spiritual daughter consoled. 

When the hour of Gertrude's summons 
to life eternal had come, one of the Sisters 
(she to whom Gertrude had dictated the 
Book of the Insinuations) saw Jesus draw 
nigh his Spouse. Joy irradiated His Face. 
On His right, was the Blessed Virgin, on 
the left, the beloved Disciple, St. John, 
w T hilst surrounding them was a multitude 
of Angels, Virgins and other Saints. The 
Virgins especially were most numerous, and 
the monastery seemed filled with them. 

The Sisters were reading beside her bed 
the account of the Passion. When they 
came to these words: "And bowing His 
Head, He gave up the ghost," Jesus leaned 
over Gertrude, and with His two hands, 
opening His own Heart, He transfused the 
flames into her soul. 



Gertrude's Blessed Death. 157 

The Community continuing the prayers, 
said to Him : " Console her, Lord, as Thou 
didst Thy Blessed Mother at the hour of 
her holy death." Then Jesus, turning to 
His Mother, addressed her thus : " O My 
Sovereign, My 'Mother, tell Me the conso- 
lation I then gave thee, that I may com- 
municate it to My Beloved." " My sweet- 
est consolation was the assured refuge of 
Thine arms." And Jesus now promised 
that this consolation should also be Ger- 
trude's. 

Her agony lasted the whole day; all 
which time our Lord never left her side, 
whilst the Angels came and w 7 ent, singing 
around her in ravishing accents of melody, 
" Come, come, come, O Queen, the delights 
of Paradise aw 7 ait thee. Alleluia! Alle- 
luia!" 

The moment which was to cut asunder 
the bonds of the flesh approached. Jesus 
said to her : " At last, I may give thy soul 
the kiss of peace, which is to unite it to 



158 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

Me; at last, My Heart may present thee to 
My Heavenly Father." 

And, at that instant, Gertrude's blessed 
soul, escaping from its earthly tabernacle, 
rose towards Jesus, and penetrated the 
sanctuary of His Sacred Heart * 

Her holy remains were exposed in the 
monastery chapel. Next day, at the hour 
of their sepulture, our Saint's confidante 
saw a multitude of souls, delivered from the 
flames of Purgatory, through Gertrude's 
intercession, join her in Heaven. 

The Religious of the monastery of Hel- 
delfs were inconsolable at Gertrude's depar- 
ture. "Never," says her biographer, "was 
any one more loved than she. The young 
girls who had been educated at the abbey, 
even children, some of whom were scarcely 
seven years of age — all seemed to cling 
more closely to her than to their own 

* Father Laurent Clement fixes the date of Ger- 
trude's death on the 17th of November, 1292. 
Gertrude was then seventy years of age. 



Gertrude's Blessed Death. 159 

mothers, and long days after she was laid 
in the tomb, their tears were still undried." 

God consoled her weeping friends by 
several celestial communications : a Sister 
saw her standing before God's throne. "O 
Sovereign Benefactor/' murmured Ger- 
trude, "I ask a favor of Thy bounty — 
every time my daughters visit my grave, 
assuage their grief and allay their tempta- 
tions, that it may be to them a sign by 
which they will recognize that I am indeed 
their mother." 

Another day, one saw her prostrate 
before God's throne praying for her daugh- 
ters. Jesus answered her: "The eyes 
of My mercy shall be ever fixed upon 
them." 

Deign, O glorious and amiable Saint, to 
adopt as thy children, all who, having read 
this brief sketch of thy life, shall thank the 
Heart of Jesus for having so loved thee ; 
guide their souls, and direct towards them 
the merciful glances of the Blessed Virgin 



160 The Heart of St Gertrude. 

Mary; and obtain through her powerful 
intercession that the Heart of Jesus in 
these our days, deluge the world with such 
waves of grace as will purify it of its 
crimes, and renew its youth to the greater 
glory of God! Arnen, 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Introductory, 5 

CHAP. 

I.— Gertrude's Childhood, 17 

II. — Gertrude's Conversion, 21 

III. — Gertrude's Sanctification, .... 29 
IV. — The Share the Blessed Virgin had 

in Gertrude's Conversion, ... 43 

V. — The Humility of Gertrude's Heart, . 59 

VI. — The Benignity of Gertrude's Heart, 73 

VII.— The Purity of Gertrude's Heart, . . 83 

VIII. — The Confiding Love of Gertrude's 

Heart, 95 

IX. — The Abandonment of Gertrude's 
Heart to the Good Pleasure of 

Jesus, 119 

X.— The Zeal of Gertrude's Heart, . . 139 

XI.— The Gratitude of Gertrude's Heart, 146 

XII.— Gertrude's Blessed Death, .... 154 

11 161 




PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 



1 1 1 Thomson ParK Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 1 6066 
(724)779-2111 



uranosrry lownsnip. r« ;ouoc 
(724) 779-21 1 1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 424 814 A 



